Coffee Knowledge
The Coffee Glossary
The coffee trade speaks its own language — Incoterms and differentials, water activity and first crack. These are the terms we use every day exporting from the Bolaven Plateau, defined the way we'd explain them to a new buyer across a cupping table.
Brewing
Coffee Basics
Arabica (Coffea arabica)
The species behind roughly 60% of world coffee and nearly all specialty-grade lots. Arabica evolved in…
Coffee Cherry
The fruit of the coffee tree — a small drupe that ripens from green through yellow to deep red (or…
Green Coffee
Coffee in its internationally traded form: the dried, milled seed of the coffee cherry before roasting,…
Peaberry
A natural mutation in which a cherry develops one round seed instead of the usual two flat-faced beans —…
Robusta (Coffea canephora)
The second commercial coffee species: higher-yielding, disease-hardy, caffeine-rich, and traditionally traded…
Logistics
Container Shipping (Coffee)
Green coffee moves in standard 20-foot dry containers — ~300 bags / 19.2 tonnes — prepared against coffee's…
GrainPro / Hermetic Liners
Multi-layer plastic liner bags placed inside jute sacks to seal green coffee from oxygen and moisture — the…
Jute Bag (60 kg)
Coffee's traditional transport unit: a woven natural-fiber sack, breathable and stackable, printed with…
Processing
Decaffeination (Swiss Water, EA, CO2)
Industrial removal of caffeine from green coffee before roasting, targeting 97%+ extraction. Leading methods:…
Hand Sorting
The final human quality gate: workers — overwhelmingly women, at origin after origin — picking defective…
Hulling
The dry-mill step that strips the parchment husk (or, for naturals, the entire dried cherry shell) from green…
Mucilage
The sticky, sugar-rich fruit layer clinging to parchment after the cherry's skin is pulped away. What happens…
Parchment (Pergamino)
The papery protective husk around each coffee seed, exposed after pulping and retained through drying in…
Washing Station (Wet Mill)
The facility where fresh cherry becomes parchment coffee: reception and flotation, pulping, fermentation…
Wet Mill vs Dry Mill
Coffee's two processing stages, often in different places: the wet mill (washing station) handles fresh…
Quality
Bean Density
How much mass a coffee bean packs per volume — measured in g/L or judged by feel and appearance (tight,…
Cupping
Coffee's standardized tasting protocol: coarse-ground samples steeped in bowls under strict ratios and…
Defects (Green Coffee)
Physical faults in green coffee counted under grading systems like the SCA's: category 1 (primary) defects —…
Grading (Green Coffee)
The classification of green coffee into commercial tiers by measurable criteria — screen size, defect count,…
MASL (Meters Above Sea Level)
The standard measure of coffee-growing altitude, and one of quality's strongest predictors. Higher farms are…
Moisture Content
The percentage of water in green coffee — the most fundamental export specification. The safe band is 10–12%:…
Q Grader
A cupper certified by the Coffee Quality Institute to evaluate Arabica under standardized protocol — coffee's…
Quakers
Unripe beans that sneak through sorting and refuse to roast properly — staying pale tan while their…
SCA Score (Specialty Grade)
The 100-point cupping score under Specialty Coffee Association protocol, summing graded attributes; 80 points…
Screen Size
Bean size measured by passing green coffee over perforated screens, numbered in 64ths of an inch — screen 16…
SHG / SHB (Strictly High Grown / Strictly Hard Bean)
Altitude-based grade designations used by Central American origins: SHG (Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua) and SHB…
Water Activity (aW)
A measure of how available a coffee's internal moisture is — thermodynamically free to migrate and support…
Roasting
Sustainability
Fairtrade Certification
The certification system guaranteeing cooperative-organized farmers a minimum price floor (insurance against…
Organic Certification
Third-party verification that coffee was grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, under standards…
Rainforest Alliance Certification
A sustainability certification (merged with UTZ in 2018) auditing farms against environmental and social…
Shade-Grown Coffee
Coffee cultivated under a tree canopy — from thin planted shade to near-forest systems — as against full-sun…
Trade
Bill of Lading (B/L)
The ocean shipment's master document, issued by the carrier: simultaneously a receipt for the cargo, evidence…
Cash Against Documents (CAD)
A documentary collection payment method lighter than a letter of credit: the exporter ships, then routes the…
Crop Year / Fresh Crop / Past Crop
Coffee's vintage system: each origin's harvest defines its crop year (Laos: roughly October–September), and…
Cup of Excellence (CoE)
The most prestigious origin-country coffee competition: national juries winnow hundreds of farm entries…
Differentials (Price Basis)
How most coffee is priced: as a premium or discount ('differential') against the futures markets — New York's…
Direct Trade
Sourcing built on direct relationships between roasters (or importers) and producers — origin visits,…
EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation)
The EU regulation requiring that coffee (among seven commodities) placed on the European market be…
FOB (Free On Board)
The most common green-coffee Incoterm: the seller's price covers everything up to and including loading the…
ICO Certificate of Origin
The International Coffee Organization's origin certificate, carrying a unique code (origin country / port /…
Incoterms (FOB, CIF, CFR, EXW, DDP)
The ICC's standardized trade terms defining exactly where seller responsibility ends and buyer responsibility…
Letter of Credit (L/C)
A bank's irrevocable payment undertaking: the buyer's bank commits to pay the exporter upon presentation of…
Micro-lot
A small, separately processed and traded parcel of coffee — a single farm's best day-lots, one variety from…
Phytosanitary Certificate
An official plant-health certificate issued by the exporting country's agriculture authority, declaring the…
Spot vs Forward Contracts
The trade's two buying modes: spot coffee sits landed in a destination warehouse, available immediately —…
The C Market (Coffee Futures)
The ICE 'Coffee C' futures contract — washed Arabica, quoted in US cents per pound — coffee's global…
Traceability
The documented chain linking a coffee lot back through export, milling, and processing to the farms —…