Coffee Glossary

Acidity

Often mistaken for bitterness. Think Granny Smith apple vs a Pink Lady. The Granny Smith has more acidity.

Arabica

The most common species of coffee cultivated for the specialty coffee market.

Aroma

The smell of brewing or brewed coffee.

Bitterness

Often mistaken for acidity. Think nut husks, apple seeds, radicchio etc.

Co-operative

A co-operative AKA co-op is an organisation that helps its members (small holder farmers) with administration and the marketing of their coffee. A Co-op will often build washing stations and provide equipment and financing for its members.

Coffee Cherry

The coffee fruit. The coffee bean as we know it is the seed of the coffee cherry. Layers from inside out: Seed / Parchment / Mucilage / Flesh / Skin.

Coffee to water ratio

AKA Brew ratio

How much ground coffee is used in a coffee preparation device vs how much water. The higher the coffee to water ratio, the more intense the cup of coffee.

Cup defect

Coffee that has bad flavour attributes.

Cupping

The international standard method of tasting and evaluating coffee.

Dark Roast

Coffee that has been roasted for a long time at high temperatures. This coffee tastes roasty, ashy, smokey etc. This is often used for defective or bad quality coffee to hide the coffee’s inherent flavour.

Defect

Coffee that is either broken, unhealthy or insect damaged.

Espresso Coffee

Any coffee made with an espresso machine. These machines use pumps to add pressure to very finely ground coffee to extract an intense cup of coffee. This method has a very high coffee to water ratio, meaning there is not much water used at all. Medium Roasts work best for this method as they have a great balance of sweetness and flavour. Light Roasted coffee is often way too intense when used in an espresso machine.

Estate

A farm that is individually owned and operated.

Ferment

A flavour defect in the cup due to the coffee being over fermented. This means it was left to ferment for too long and has begun to taste like vinegar or alcohol.

Fermentation

The process that breaks down the outer layers of the coffee cherry as part of processing. Fermentation is responsible for many chemical changes within the seed itself and has a dramatic effect on the flavour of the coffee.

— Wet —


When the fermentation is conducted in water. This allows for a slow fermentation period of up to 72 hours, where the mucilage breaks down slowly and creates complex flavours.


— Dry —


When the fermentation is conducted without water. This is a much more aggressive form of fermentation whereby the coffee is exposed to the air and fermentation reactions happen faster.


— Anaerobic —


Fermentation, either wet or dry, where the coffee is not exposed to air. All wet fermentation is Anaerobic, but dry fermentation can be made to be anaerobic if the coffee is covered and therefore protected from the elements.

— Aerobic —


When fermenting coffee is exposed to the air and elements. The fastest and most aggressive fermentation technique.

Filter Coffee

Coffee that is to be made in a device that uses filter paper. These methods have a low coffee to water ratio and can handle light roasted coffee with high acidity.

Fragrance

The smell of dry ground coffee.

Grade

Each coffee growing country has its own grading system (eg. Kenya has many grades, from AA, which is the largest bean size, to AB, C, E etc.). The “Grades” usually denote bean size or quality.

Green Bean

Fully processed coffee.

Hulling

The removal of the parchment layer from the coffee seed. This is the final step before coffee is exported.

Hybrid

A laboratory made, or selectively grown, combination of two or more varieties or species of coffee. This is usually done to gain attributes from each element (eg. flavour from one element and disease resistance from another).

Light Roast

Coffee roasted to a light degree. This means that it is roasted for a shorter time and/or at lower temperatures. This is best used for high quality coffees that are to be made as filter coffee or any method that has a low coffee to water ratio. Light roasted coffee is often highly acidic and aromatic.

Lot

Any particular batch of coffee. Some farmers separate lots by variety or by the area of their farm where the coffees were grown, or sometimes by the day that they were picked.

Mechanical Drier

A machine used to dry coffee. It heats the coffee as it spins to dry coffee evenly. Not many coffee farmers can afford these machines.

Mechanical Harvester

A machine that shakes coffee beans off the tree. This is a much faster way to remove fruit from trees, but it is not as selective and careful as hand-picking. It is often used in large estates that cannot afford the wages to hand pick the entire crop.

Medium Roast

Coffee that has been roasted a little bit more than a Light Roast. This brings out the sweetness of the coffee without adding roasty flavours to it. Great for high quality coffees that are to be used in any method from filter to espresso.

Micro Lot

A super small lot of coffee, usually made up of one variety of coffee.

Mucilage

The sticky layer that clings on to the parchment coffee.

Nano Lot

An even smaller lot than a micro lot. Usually a single variety picked on a certain day.

Parchment

The protective papery layer that surrounds the coffee seed. Similar, but thicker than, the papery encasing to a peanut. Coffee is processed entirely with its parchment layer still attached. This protects the seed from ageing.

Parchment Coffee

Coffee seeds that still have the parchment layer attached.

Patio

A concrete area where coffee is laid out to dry.

Processing

The method used to remove the coffee seed from the coffee cherry.

— Washed —

The way of removing the coffee fruit from the seed that involves the use of water. The standard way to do this is by first picking the cherries, followed by pulping them to remove their fruit, fermentation to remove the mucilage, drying, storing and then hulling before export. The water can be used to ferment the coffee and/or to wash off the broken down mucilage after fermentation.

— Honey / Semi-Washed —


This is the process whereby coffee is picked when ripe, pulped to remove the outer fruit layers and then dried with the sticky mucilage layer still attached to the parchment coffee. The coffee is called Honey because it is sticky and has the aroma of honey as it dries. Honey coffee is typically sweet with lower acidity than a washed coffee.

— Natural —


This is the simplest way to process coffee. It allows the coffee fruit to dry on the tree. The dried fruit is then removed and laid out to dry evenly on a patio or raised bed. Coffee is then hulled before export.

— Unwashed —


Unwashed coffee is when coffee is picked when ripe and sent to dry immediately on patios or raised beds. Coffee is then hulled before export.

Pulping

The process that removes the outer layers of the coffee fruit from the rest. This is done during the Washed and Honey processes.

Raised Drying bed

A bed that is usually lined with mesh that is used to dry coffee. When coffee is laid out on raised drying beds, it dries more evenly than when laid out on a patio. This is because the coffee receives more even airflow i.e. from above and below.

Roast Degree

How light or dark the coffee is roasted. This is often a visual representation of the roasted coffee i.e. light roasts are light brown in colour, where dark roasts can be almost black in colour. The longer you roast coffee, the more you sacrifice acidity and sweetness for body and richness.

Robusta

The most common species of coffee used for instant coffee production. It is very disease resistant, high yielding and can grown at low altitudes.

Small Holder Farmer

Any grower who doesn’t quite have enough coffee trees to market their own coffee individually.

Specialty

Coffee that scores over 80 points in a standardised cup scoring evaluation.

Species

Arabica and Robusta are just two of the many coffee species. There are many unknown/un-named species growing around the world.

Variety / Varietal

The type of coffee tree (eg. Bourbon or Caturra… think of Granny Smith or Pink Lady apples)

Washing Station

This is often where small holder farmers bring their coffee to be processed. The Washing Station will receive cherries from local farmers and pay them for their fruit. The Washing Station then pulps, ferments, sorts and dries the coffee.