Coffee Grade

The rating of either a sample or a full lot, according to national standards for export. Nearly every county of origin has its own grading scale. It can be quite confusing! Sometimes the coffee earns a higher grade than it deserves, sometimes the grade is actually lowered to avoid tariffs. Central and South Americans tend to follow the SHB and SHG model (Strictly Hard Bean and Strictly High Grown indicates altitudes above 1000m). So hard beans grow at higher altitude and that’s good, right? Well, in Brazil’s grading, Strictly Soft is a top grade. Many countries use a simple numeric scale. But formerly a Grade 4 Ethiopian is the top Dry-Processed grade you’ll see (Gr.2 in washed Ethiopians), and a Grade 1 Sumatra allows a large percentage of defects . In essence, all should conform to the Green Coffee Classification System, but they don’t.

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