Coffee glossary

Words you’ll see on coffee labels and tasting notes.

Farming & processing

Coffee cherry: The fruit of the coffee tree, usually red when ripe (also yellow, pink or orange). Each cherry normally holds two seeds: the coffee beans.
Mucilage: The sticky, sugary layer around the parchment. Processing methods differ mainly in what happens to it: washed off (washed), left on (honey) or dried with the whole fruit (natural).
Parchment: Coffee with the fruit removed but still wrapped in a thin husk (endocarp). Washed and honey coffees are dried and stored as parchment and hulled before export.
Green coffee: Unroasted coffee after hulling; the form in which coffee is traded internationally.
Washing station: A site that buys cherries from nearby smallholders and processes them together; common in Ethiopia, Kenya (where it is called a factory) and Rwanda. Lots are often named after the station.
Micromill: Small processing equipment owned by the farm itself, giving control over processing and drying; Costa Rica is famous for them.
Raised bed: Elevated mesh tables for drying coffee. Better airflow gives more even drying and fewer defects.
Altitude: Higher altitude means cooler weather and slower ripening, building more sugar and acidity and denser beans. Specialty Arabica usually grows above 1,200 m.
Terroir: The combined effect of soil, climate, altitude and sunlight on how a coffee tastes.
Shade-grown: Coffee grown under taller trees; cherries ripen more slowly and biodiversity benefits.
Leaf rust (roya): One of coffee’s worst diseases: a fungus causes orange spots and leaf drop. After the 2012 Central American outbreak, resistant varieties became much more important.
Monsooned: An Indian treatment where green coffee absorbs monsoon humidity in open warehouses. The beans swell and pale, giving very low acidity, heavy body and woody, spicy notes (as in Monsooned Malabar).
Brix: Sugar content of the cherry measured with a refractometer, helping farmers decide when to pick and when to stop fermentation.

Grades & trade

Peaberry (PB): A cherry containing a single round seed, about 5–10% of the crop. Tanzania and Kenya often sell them separately.
AA / AB grades: Kenya and Tanzania grade by bean size: AA is largest (screen 18+), then AB. Size is not flavour, but uniform beans roast more evenly.
Grade 1 / Grade 2: Ethiopia grades by defect count and cup quality; Grade 1 has the fewest defects and is typical for specialty lots.
SHB / SHG: Central American altitude grades, Strictly Hard Bean / Strictly High Grown: roughly above 1,200–1,350 m, giving denser beans and better flavour.
Screen size: The standard for measuring green bean size, in 1/64-inch steps. Screen 18 is about 7.1 mm wide.
Micro-lot: A small lot from a single plot, a single picking day or a single process, traceable to a very small area.
Single origin: Coffee from a single country, region or farm, not blended with other origins.
Blend: A mix of origins or processes for balance and consistency, often used for espresso.
Specialty coffee: Coffee scoring 80 points or more on the SCA cupping scale, with very few defects.
New crop: Green coffee from the current harvest. Green coffee slowly fades with time, so new-crop lots are usually the most vivid.
Auction: Competition winners are usually sold by online auction to roasters worldwide, with most proceeds going to producers.
Direct trade: Roasters buying directly from farms or cooperatives in long-term relationships, emphasising transparency and quality premiums.

Cupping & flavour

Cupping: The standard way to assess coffee: coarse grounds steeped in hot water, the crust broken, then slurped from a spoon to compare aroma, flavour, acidity and body.
Cupping score: The SCA 100-point scale: 80+ is specialty, 85+ excellent and 90+ very rare. Competition winners usually score 87 or more.
Q Grader: A cupper certified by the Coffee Quality Institute to score coffee to international standards.
Acidity: The bright, lively quality in coffee, like the acidity of fruit rather than sourness from spoilage. More noticeable in light roasts and high-grown coffee.
Body: The weight and texture of coffee in the mouth: light like tea or heavy like milk.
Sweetness: The impression of sweetness in coffee, like caramel, honey or ripe fruit. Ripe cherries and good roasting increase it.
Aftertaste: The flavour that lingers after swallowing; longer and cleaner is better.
Clean cup: Free of off-flavours and defects, with clear flavours.
Fermented notes: Winey, lactic or jammy notes that come from fermentation. In moderation it is character; too much tastes boozy or vinegary.
Flavour wheel: A tasting tool from the SCA and World Coffee Research that moves from broad categories (fruity) to specific notes (blueberry). This guide’s flavour families are a simplified version.

Roasting & brewing

Roast date: The day the coffee was roasted. Light roasts usually taste best 7–21 days after roasting; darker roasts can be drunk sooner.
Resting (degassing): Freshly roasted coffee holds lots of CO₂; resting for days or weeks lets it escape so brewing is more stable and flavours clearer.
First crack: The cracking sound as moisture inside the beans turns to steam during roasting; light roasts usually end soon after it.
Extraction: How hot water dissolves flavour from the grounds. Under-extraction tastes sour, over-extraction bitter; grind, temperature and time all matter.
Brew ratio: The ratio of coffee to water. Pour-over is often 1:15–1:17; espresso is about 1:2.
TDS: Total dissolved solids, a measure of coffee strength; pour-over is usually 1.2–1.45%.