What does an 80-point coffee mean?
Eighty points is the entry threshold for on the SCA's 100-point scale. It means a clean, defect-free cup with real, identifiable positive attributes. Roughly the top 10-20% of the world's coffee clears it.
Sources show where the underlying information came from. They do not automatically make a claim correct, so disputed history, evolving science and uncertain claims should be labeled as such in the explanation itself.
The 80-point line matters commercially: below it, coffee is 'commercial grade', sold in bulk on commodity markets where price is driven by volume, not taste. At 80+, coffee enters the specialty market, where price reflects quality and story. But 80 is a floor, not a destination — it means the coffee is free of defects and pleasant, not that it's remarkable. Most good café coffee scores in the low-to-mid 80s. Exceptional lots — the kind that win competitions and sell at auction — score 86+. When you see a score on a bag or in a review, 80 tells you the floor was cleared; every point above it represents genuinely rare quality.
- ·Specialty Coffee Association(No direct source link provided)
- ·Coffee Quality Institute (CQI)(No direct source link provided)