Blog | Q Grading Exams at Coffee Project NY, April 2024
Category: Events
Published: February 13, 2024
Become a certified Q Arabica Grader by taking the famous 6-day course, beginning on Monday, April 1, 2024, hosted by guest instructor Sandra Loofbourow.
Since its inception over 15 years ago, Q Grading has become the global standard for coffee evaluation. Designed by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) to establish and maintain a common language for quality assessment, the Q Arabica Grading and Q Robusta Grading certification programs produce experienced professionals with tools to officially grade coffee samples from around the world.
Becoming a Q Grader is an investment in career growth and opportunities, from quality control in roasting to evaluating lots as a green buyer. As a coffee professional calibrated to a universal language of evaluation that crosses borders and language barriers, your ability to grade coffee won’t be the only valuable skill available to you after passing your exam.
In class, you’ll learn how to:
- Identify coffee bean defects, both visually and by taste
- Assess coffee quality attributes
- Train your palate sensitivity to flavors like acidic, bitter, and salty
- Recognize various organic acids
- Distinguish different roast levels and coffee profiles by cupping
- Utilize smell and aroma in the tasting process
What does it take to become a Q Grader? The week-long course is separated into two parts: review and exam. The first three days of class is spent reviewing theoretical knowledge and practicing for each component exam. The following 3-day exam is exhaustive, rigorous, and notoriously challenging to pass on the first attempt; Q Combo students should be experienced coffee cuppers with existing practice in evaluation.
The Q Arabica Grading exam is comprised of 20 individual exams distributed across the following nine modules:
- General Knowledge
- Cupping Form Protocol
- Triangulation
- Sensory Skills
- Organic Acids
- Olfaction with Le Nez du Café
- Flavor Standards with FlavorActiv
- Green Coffee Defects
- Roast Level Identification
These nine modules don’t only reflect the skills each grader is required to demonstrate in coffee evaluation; they also help standardize the skills each grader brings to the cupping exam.
Invest in Your Coffee Career
The CQI, through Q Grading certification and calibration, provides a shared vocabulary for the global coffee community; subjective words for flavor and aroma notes become standardized to that common vocabulary.
Q Graders are the highest echelon of quality assessment in the coffee industry. Getting certified opens an array of career opportunities in sourcing, roasting, quality control, and import/export. Plus, maintaining quality standards for specialty coffee allows its producers to set higher prices for higher-grade coffees, while generally elevating quality industrywide.
Guest Instructor
Sandra Loofbourow
In the Q Combo course, I felt that I was welcomed into an international industry for the first time. Coffee is a global commodity—we know that! But as a barista or roaster working in a small company, it’s hard to understand the implications of that international trade. The Q Course gave me a compass and some of the vocabulary to be able to become a more confident participant in this world.
As a woman in the coffee industry (and as a latina), becoming a Q Grader allowed me to confidently give feedback to my coffee trader, it made me a better roaster, and it gave me a new language—one that was more universal—to talk about coffee.
Check out Loofbourow’s website at Loupe Coffee Consulting, featuring in-depth blog posts on what Q Grading is and why it’s a sought after career pathway for coffee professionals, or ways to prepare for the exam.
All classes take place at our training lab in Long Island City:
Academy at Coffee Project NY
21-10 51st Avenue
Queens, NY 11101
Directions
Need help with the cost of class?
Check out our installment pay options with Affirm during class checkout.