How to Judge a Coffee Competition: Q&A with Stephen Gray

In this sort of context, yes! Every day I’m assessing coffee quality for our own sourcing and profiling, but this was my first experience contributing on an international judging panel at competition level, and it was very exciting to take part as this has been a career goal of mine for a while!

The Especialíssimo programme run by SMC is a way of recognising and incentivising the efforts it takes to produce speciality coffee to all 20,000 members of the parent co-op, Cooxupe. What’s unique about the awards is that it’s not an auction – the coffee has all already been purchased by SMC. Instead,it’s about building internal recognition for the producers.

Before the judging begins, you need to make sure you’re well rested, hydrated and fed – you've got to maintain serious focus, as you’re assessing the culmination of years of plant cultivation and processing, so you also need to make sure your mind isn’t occupied with other things. During each cupping session, I have a specific purpose for each pass of the table – checking acidity, then mouthfeel, then balance and so on. I drink plenty of water between each pass to keep my palate fresh, and after scoring everything, return to confirm them in order of scoring, making sure I haven’t missed or misjudged anything!

It’s important to approach with as open a mind as possible, as preconceptions will colour your perceptions – so I try to treat each coffee on its own merits, rather than looking for particular characteristics. But what usually scores well for me is complexity and balance – coffees that have a lot of different but distinct aspects, and coffees where all the aspects are working together in harmony to create an exceptional overall tasting experience. These are often not the coffees that are “loudest” on the table, but have a certain delicateness – the winner, Sítio São João, is a really good example of this.

Incredibly close. All the scoring was based on an average of all 20 judges, excluding any who were outside the average by more than 2 points. After judging all 50 lots, we re-cupped the top 10 lots the following day to hone in more closely and provide more detail in the sensory notes. The top 10 were all judged to be 88+; Sítio Angola ended up with 89.33; Sítio Maranhão at 89.40 and Sítio São João received a score 89.41 - showing just how close the competition was!

What’s great about the top three is that they really showcase a range of distinct flavour profiles. A lot of people have preconceptions about Brazilian coffee being primarily chocolatey and nutty, and not demonstrating a lot of complexity. But in these top three, we see Sítio Angola as a really good representation of well-managed controlled fermentation, giving a distinct “boozy”, red fruit profile with punchy acidity and a lot of character. Sítio Maranhão has a more “traditional” Brazilian profile, but with more complexity – bright berries & orchard fruits with just a hint of sweet white chocolate. And the champion lot, Sítio São João, shows a rare elegance, with incredible yellow fruit notes like peach and apricot, a delicate, silky body andsparkling acidity.

In fact I have just got back from Colombia, judging the national Land of Diversity competition. Land of Diversity recognises the range of terroirs across the whole country of Colombia, celebrating the diversity of profiles that this creates. It also involves a live auction for the finalist lots after the judging is finished – and we’venabbed a couple of lots from this competition too!

Sítio São João is reserved for subscribers only, so be sure to check out our Feature Coffee Subscription if you’d like to secure a bag. Sítio Maranhão and Sítio Angola are available online now.