What is a Q-Grader? Is it worth taking the test?

There always is such a group of people who have obtained a code for self-reference due to the particularity of their profession. Even in the seemingly not vast field of coffee, there is also such a profession. After the concept of specialty coffee was proposed, in order to be able to distinguish the quality of the beans, people specially added a scoring mechanism. The scoring mechanism is to conduct cupping and scoring for the coffee beans submitted to the institution (SCA) or the event (COE). If the score is more than 85 points, it will be classified as specialty coffee, and if the score is less than 85 points, it will be classified as commercial beans.

There is a certain difference in the price between the two, so the key person who decides the score must judge the beans from a very objective perspective and score. Therefore, a special agency is needed to train them to ensure that when scoring, it will not be affected by too many subjective factors! And this kind of coffee reviewer is – “Q-Grader”, referred to as “Q”!

The full name of “Q-Grader” is “Q Arabica/Robusta Grader”, which translates to: Specialty Arabica (Robusta) coffee quality grading taster. And the agency that trains them is “CQI”, the full name is “Coffee Quality Institute”, which translates to: Coffee Quality Institute.

CQI was developed from a committee established by the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association of American) American Specialty Coffee Association. In 1996, in order to improve the quality of coffee and improve the income of coffee farmers, SCA specially set up a committee to specifically address it! With the development of the times, this committee has gradually become independent, and then it has become the present CQI. And SCA has also merged with SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe) European Specialty Coffee Association to become the most authoritative and largest coffee organization in the world – SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) Specialty Coffee Association.

To obtain the qualification to give scores to the beans, it is necessary to pass the Q Program (Q system) developed specifically by CQI for coffee evaluation! The advantage of this system is that it allows people from all over the world to have a unified standard and unified values. Do not let people be limited by their own taste preferences and specifically give the beans positive or negative scores! No matter where you are, you can make the most correct score assessment.

Q Program
Since CQI is an organization specially established for the quality of coffee beans, this system is not only for the senses, but even the planting of coffee and the quality of raw beans will all be involved. The whole system is divided into 8 themes, each with different assessment contents, which all focus on the core of theory, smell, taste, and vision to carry out the test.

Learning to stand and walk before flying is a very important thing. Only by in-depth understanding of all aspects of coffee knowledge can you obtain the entry brick for coffee evaluation. Therefore, the first assessment of the Q system is: theory. From a series of theories such as coffee production, variety, extraction, and sense, this tests the knowledge reserve of the participants! After the theoretical test, it is the battlefield of the senses. Those who are determined to become Q friends need to distinguish the different flavors of coffee through smell, taste and other taste senses respectively!

In addition, it is also necessary to find all the defective beans from the quantitative coffee beans; and, in the dark light environment, distinguish the coffee beans of different roasting degrees, yes, this is a visual assessment!
Although it seems very simple, in fact, it is very difficult! People who participate in the examination not only need to have very strong knowledge reserves, but also need to accept the highly intense tests of smell, taste, and vision in just a few days. Therefore, friends who need to apply for the qualification certificate need to be well prepared mentally.
Up to today, there are less than 10,000 friends in the world who have the Q-Grader qualification certificate (there are 8,939 Arabrica Qs; there are 543 Robusta Qs), compared to the people engaged in the coffee industry, the proportion of this number is indeed very small. But this does not mean that having the qualification of Q-Grader is equivalent to having a universal knocker in the coffee field, which is the wrong understanding of many friends about Q.

To a certain extent, Q is not a knocker, it is more like a stepping stone. Compared with the career options that Q can bring, its greater role is actually to allow us to systematically improve our own skills and knowledge. We can come into contact with more people, things, and things that are normally difficult to encounter through Q, which will be more important for friends who are already and intend to deeply plow in the coffee industry.

But if you are a newbie who has just entered the industry, or a coffee lover who has not entered the industry, Qianjie suggests that it is better to decide whether to take the test for this qualification after having a certain understanding of coffee and the coffee industry. After all, the cost of taking the Q test is not a number that can be simply passed, not to mention that it also needs to be renewed to extend the validity period!