About the course:
“The Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) designed the Q Grader program to create a skilled and credible body of specialty coffee cuppers. The role of these cuppers is to consistently and accurately assess coffee quality, both cup and grade, as a part of its Q Coffee System.”
It is a 6 day course broken up into theory, practice and examinations consisting of twenty individual tests that must be passed in order to qualify for certification. The first couple of days are all theory and calibration. You get a good understanding of what the exams will be like and a base point of the coffees.
The journey
In 2019 my wife, Veronica, and I had the opportunity to sit the Q grader course. It was held at 5 Senses Training Academy in Melbourne, AU, taught by instructor Ben Bicknell.
Everything started, more then a year earlier, while sitting at the 5 senses stand, enjoying a beautiful coffee tasting experience, during MICE ( Melbourne international coffee expo ). We where talking and there we decided one day we would attend the “Q grader” course.
Few months after MICE, on December 13, Veronica was handing me, what was my birthday present. Was the “ Le Nez Du Cafè” aroma kit and Organic acids kit. From there we started to train daily covering as many topics as we could. End of march, 5 Senses released the “Q grader” dates. Although the price of the course was intimidating, being around 2900$ per person, we immediately booked our spots and we were in.
It was a mentally challenging experience. Everyone’s tip is to face it for what it is, a course, where you will learn heaps and whether you will pass it or not surely you will walk out being a better taster. In reality is not as simple as that.
It’s a big effort in terms of money, time and energy. As the week goes on, the intensity raises to another level. It becomes harder and harder to taste and stay focused. We found the hardest exams were the sensory component ( Sweet, sour, salt ), organic acids was another tough one, washed mild triangulation being very tricky for the similarities among the cups.
We both pass during week one, along with Alex ( Roaster for Rumble coffee roaster ) and we were extremely happy and proud for that.
Challenges
The biggest challenge we have had was to have never cupped with a Q grader before in order to calibrate ourselves. Our role within the coffee industry was “head baristas”, while most of the people attending the “Q” are already working in “QC” ( quality control ) or within a roastery, cupping lots of coffees every day. However for the more experienced one sometimes can be hard to calibrate following different standards.
The biggest advantage we have had was ourselves. During our experience within the coffee industry from day 1 we literally spend every single day trying to learn new things. We kept studying, practicing visiting cafes and more especially after working hours. As a couple we kept pushing each other and did countless hours of training and calibration. A month before the “Q grader” we met a beautiful person, now close friend of us, which was too going to attend the course and we teamed up intensifying even further our Training program.
The tests
Green Grading
You are given 3 x 350g green coffee samples that have been tainted with a certain number defects. The aim is to identify the defects and then correctly name the type of defect it is.
Cupping Skills
The core exams of the Q Grader course. Evaluating 4 flights (Naturals, Milds, Africa, Asia) using the SCA form. Each flight contains 6 coffees. The whole cupping session will be run exclusively by you and the other attendees, therefore working as a team is key.
Olfactory Skills
Olfactory skills tests uses the Le Nez du Cafe scent vial kit. I found that each kit was quite different in intensity and some off them were totally off as well which made this test very tricky. The aim is to recognise all thirty six aromatic scents often found in the fragrance and aroma of coffee.
Triangulation Skills
Triangulation tests are designed to increase your sensitivity in the differences of coffee characteristics. Test subjects must taste and identify the one different cup in each set of three for six sets in each test for purposes of quality control.
Organic Acids
Firstly you will be introduced to each of the six primary acid components of coffee. However, only four will be present in the test ours were Citric, Acetic, Phosphoric and Malic. In the exam you are asked to match and name the pairs. Eight sets of four cups of brewed coffee are placed on a table; participants must identify which two coffees have been fortified with one of the common acids in each set and which ones are plain, as well as name the acid. This was one of the hardest tests of all, on top of that the cups were very lightly tainted therefore the presence of acids was not as obvious, also the reference was not as mild and diluted as we were expecting.
Sensory Skills
Test subjects must identify three intensities of salt, sour and sweet odorless solutions individually and when combined in mixtures.
Part I: Reference – Participants are provided three samples (low, medium, high) of each taste group (salt, sour, sweet) which must be ranked by intensity.
Part II: Blind Identification – All nine sample solutions are provided blind and must be identified by group and intensity.
Part III: Mixture Set – Subjects are provided with eight mixtures of samples containing either two or three base solutions. Students must correctly identify the number, type and intensity of base solutions in each mixture.
Easy to say that this is the test everyone's fear !
Roasted Coffee Grading
Probably one of the easiest tests in the course. You must correctly identify the number of quakers which are underdeveloped beans that do not roast properly.
Sample Roast Identification
Test subjects are given four trays of coffee; one of the trays meets SCA Cupping Protocol specifications and the other three are either unacceptable as, Under-develop, Baked or Over-roasted / dark. Participants must correctly identify each sample.
General Knowledge
The general knowledge exam is the only completely written test, consisting of 100 multiple choice questions about coffee cultivation, harvesting, processing, cupping, grading, roasting and brewing.
Here 11 tips that helped us get through the week:
Stay calm
Do not second guess yourself
Use all the senses
Do not over cup
Stay well hydrated
Do not drink alcohol
Avoid eating food heavily spiced, salted or with lot of garlic and onion
Do not wear perfumes or cologne
Enjoy the experience
Get enough sleep
Take lots of notes
If you would like to have a chat regarding in-depth details, tips, training methods and routines in preparation to the “Q grader” hit the “learn more” button now.
I would like to hear your thoughts, opinions and experiences. If this was helpful and inspiring tag or use #gianmarcoierardi on instagram to connect with me !
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”
All the above is based on our personal and professional experience, it is what we believe and what brought us here writing this guide.Onto the way to success there are no rules, just commitment and consistency.Ultimately the is no right and wrong but only different ways of thinking, different approaches and different methods.There is no perfection but only progression.Do not believe who says to know everything. Learning is ongoing and endless.What we believe is right today might be wrong tomorrow, stay always up to date.
Be curious.
I wrote this hoping to inspire others! If you made it to read all of this to the end..
THANK YOU !