How the Gold Cup works

The SCAE Gold Cup uses the industry to monitor itself, backed up by incontrovertible and well-researched scientific data to ensure the integrity of the Gold Cup as a quality standard is objectively maintained.

THE ART OF BREWING - WHAT IS THE PERFECT CUP?

There are acres of paper filled with data on coffee, coffee origins, coffee roasting and coffee flavour profiles. All these things have huge importance on what goes in the cup.

As important is the alchemy or art of turning a coffee bean and water into a perfectly extracted cup of coffee.

The Art of Brewing is effectively taking between 18 and 22% of a coffee bean and extracting it into approx 1.3% of the finished beverage.

The most important aspect of ‘the perfect cup’ is the balance between strength of the beverage and correct extraction of the bean.

THE SCIENCE OF BREWING – HOW TO GET THE PERFECT CUP

Filter coffee as defined by the SCAE Gold Cup standard -
‘A ratio of 1 litre of fresh water brewed at 92° to 96°C through 50 to 65g of freshly ground coffee and filtered through an oxygen-bleached filter paper to extract between 18% and 22% of solids from the coffee.’

Scientifically, there are many aspects which influence the quality of filter coffee, most significantly:

1. Grammage - How much coffee we use per litre of water.
2. Grind - How coarse or fine we grind the roasted coffee bean
3. Contact Time - How long the ground beans and water are in contact to extract the brew.
4. Temperature - How consistent and what temperature the water is at brew time.