Because of this it is difficult to guarantee the experience of any given coffee that is purchased. Likewise, consistency on the part of the roasting company is important. At Roast Ratings we do everything in our power to ensure accurate and fair evaluations, but coffee can change through age as well as roasting changes. New crops of coffee, as well as current roast techniques and blends should be evaluated every year.

Goals

• Give a fair, unbiased, and professional evaluation of every coffee.
• Create a searchable and useful listing of coffees, giving multiple ways to find the product desired.
• Present information in a format that is easy to understand without overloading the senses.
• Provide useful articles and material that any coffee lover can relate to. ‘Coffee for the People’ is more than just a slogan, it is our mission.

What

• The majority of the coffees we evaluate are submitted by the roasting companies who seek a rating for their coffee.
• Additionally, we purchase major brands from supermarkets, bulk stores, and other widely distributed markets to rate.
• Currently only whole bean offerings are evaluated for a rating. Single serve pods, ready to drink coffees will be featured in tasting articles.

Who

• Our Senior Tasters evaluate the coffee samples. One taster evaluates each grouping, and all scores are confirmed by a secondary taster.
• In addition to the Senior Tasters, we also have Apprentice Tasters who participate.
• Apprentice Tasters may be promoted to Senior Taster after showing consistent calibration in scoring and evaluation.

How

• All coffees are tasted blind to eliminate bias or assumptions about an origin, roasting company, or pricing.
• Samples are grouped based on roast, origin country, and/or process when possible.
• Each day before evaluating, all tasters must calibrate their scores together using a known sample. Calibration is vital to the consistency of evaluation.

Where

• All standard evaluations are done at our offices, in conjunction with the SCAA lab at Workbench Coffee Labs in Kansas City, Missouri.
• Brew evaluations are done on BonaVita 1900TS home coffee brewers. These brewers are certified to meet the strict requirements of the SCAA for brewing.
• Off site evaluations are always set in neutral environments, and a location which is not directly associated with a coffee roasting company. The location of the evaluation will be notated on the final rating sheet. If there is no notation, the coffee was evaluated at our home lab.