Back to school means grades, report cards, and the inevitable question: “What did you get?”
But here's a question you might not have expected: What grade did your coffee get?
You won't find a coffee score printed on our bags at Hansa. But when we're considering a new coffee, there's a good chance we've seen one. Producers and importers often provide scores as part of the information they use to describe and sell green coffee.
So who gives coffee a score? What does that number actually mean? And if one coffee scores higher than another, does that make it a better coffee?
Well… it's a little more complicated than that.
Who Grades Coffee?
Coffee professionals have developed ways to evaluate coffee systematically, rather than simply saying, “I like this one.”
One of the organizations you'll hear about in the specialty coffee world is the Specialty Coffee Association, or SCA. The SCA is a global nonprofit organization that provides education, research, standards, and resources for the specialty coffee industry.
The SCA has helped establish a common language for evaluating and talking about coffee. Traditionally, that has included a 100-point scoring system. You may have heard coffee described as an “84,” “87,” or “90-point” coffee.
Historically, coffees scoring 80 points or higher on this scale have been considered specialty coffee.
But coffee evaluation has evolved.
It's More Than Just One Number
In 2023, the SCA introduced the Coffee Value Assessment, or CVA, a framework designed to provide a more complete picture of a coffee rather than relying on a single score.
The CVA looks at four different kinds of information:
Physical: What is the green coffee physically like? Things such as bean size, moisture, and defects are considered.
Descriptive: What do we actually experience in the cup? This includes things like aroma, flavor, texture, and aftertaste.
Affective: How does the evaluator perceive the coffee's quality or appeal?
Extrinsic: What do we know about the coffee beyond what's in the cup? This can include origin, traceability, processing, certifications, and other information about the coffee.
In other words, the SCA's current approach recognizes something that makes a lot of sense to us:
Coffee is complicated. One number can't tell the whole story.
So What Does an 84—or an 87—Actually Mean?
A coffee score isn't quite like getting an A on a school assignment.
A higher score generally reflects differences that professional evaluators perceive in the coffee—things like clarity, complexity, aroma, sweetness, balance, and the way the flavors develop in the cup.
But an 87-point coffee isn't automatically going to be your favorite coffee.
You might love an 84-point coffee because it's sweet, balanced, and full of the flavors you enjoy. Someone else might prefer an 87-point coffee because it's more complex, floral, or fruit-forward.
That's one reason we think of a coffee score as useful information, not a final verdict.
So Where Do Hansa Coffees Fall?
Here's where it gets interesting.
Every coffee we purchase that comes with a reported score is 84 points or higher.
But we don't print those scores on our bags—and we don't simply shop for the highest number we can find.
When we're choosing coffees, we're looking for variety.
We want to offer coffees from different countries and growing regions, because where coffee is grown matters. Different environments create different expressions of terroir—the combination of place, climate, soil, altitude, and other growing conditions that influence how a coffee tastes.
We're interested in different varieties, different processing methods, and different flavor profiles.
And sometimes, we find a coffee that we're simply really excited about.
That's what we're ultimately trying to create at Hansa: a selection of coffees that gives you something interesting to explore.
An 84-point coffee from one country and processing method may taste completely different from another 84-point coffee. And that's a good thing.
And Sometimes There Isn't a Score
Not every coffee has a neat number attached to it.
Take our Asali Hills coffee from Kenya.
Asali Hills comes from a newer coffee farm, and we have a somewhat unusual connection to it. We work through a community member from Mundelein who co-owns the farm with partners in Kenya.
Because it's a newer farm and we're working with it through a direct relationship, it doesn't have the same formal scoring history you might see with coffees that have moved through more established sourcing channels.
But that doesn't make us any less excited about the coffee.
In fact, the relationship is part of what makes it special to us.
We're able to connect our community here in Mundelein with the people growing coffee in Kenya in a way that goes beyond a number on a cupping form.
That's something a score can't really capture.
What Should You Look For on a Bag?
So if the score isn't the whole story, what should you pay attention to?
Start with what sounds good to you.
Look at the origin if you want to explore how different places influence coffee.
Look at the processing method if you're curious about how the coffee was prepared after it was harvested.
Look at the tasting notes if you're looking for flavors you already know you enjoy—or want to try something completely different.
And ask about the story behind the coffee. Who grew it? Where did it come from? How did it get here? Why did we choose it?
The score, when there is one, is another piece of that story.
So, Does Your Coffee Get a Grade?
Sort of.
Coffee professionals have developed sophisticated ways to evaluate coffee, and those evaluations can give us useful information when we're deciding what coffees to buy.
At Hansa, every coffee we receive with a reported score is 84 points or higher.
But we're not chasing the biggest number.
We're looking for coffees that are delicious, interesting, different from one another, and worth sharing with you.
Because ultimately, the best coffee isn't necessarily the one with the highest score.
It's the one you can't wait to drink again.
