The U.S.- and Europe-based Specialty Espresso Affiliation (SCA) introduced it’s taking up administration of the Q Grader program starting Oct. 1, 2025.
The Q program has been the flagship certification and schooling program of the U.S.-based nonprofit Espresso High quality Institute. Monetary phrases of the deal between the 2 organizations haven’t been publicly disclosed.
Usually in comparison with sommelier certification within the wine business, the Q Grader program has supplied greater than 8,000 espresso professionals with rigorous-exam-tested bona fides on arabica espresso, robusta espresso and post-harvest processing. This system has additionally boosted CQI’s broader efforts to advertise espresso high quality as a method to enhance premium market entry for espresso farmers and producers.
The SCA and CQI are describing the “transition” of the Q program administration to the SCA as a part of a “partnership.”
The SCA stated that an advanced Q program will likely be primarily based on its Espresso Worth Evaluation (CVA) program, a set of cupping varieties and protocols rolled out in 2023 and designed to interchange the group’s legacy cupping varieties, used for skilled espresso analysis, a.ok.a. “cupping.”
“Espresso is greater than a rating. The partnership between SCA and CQI to evolve the Q Grader program is the newest milestone in the direction of delivering on the SCA’s function to make espresso higher,” Yannis Apostolopoulos, CEO of the Specialty Espresso Affiliation, stated in an announcement of the Q program deal on the eve of the SCA’s flagship U.S. commerce present, the SCA Expo. “Upon completion of this system, Q Graders holding the advanced, CVA-based license will set the usual for contemporary espresso analysis. Via a system that takes a holistic view of worth in espresso, they’ll play a key function in driving progress within the international specialty espresso business.”
A extensively used instrument all through the worldwide specialty espresso business, the SCA’s legacy cupping varieties have traditionally been referenced in Q Grader coaching and schooling. In October of 2022, because the SCA despatched a discover to members, signed by Apostolopoulos, that it was launching a “process drive” to construct a brand new espresso grading and cupping system (now referred to as the CVA) for skilled cuppers.
In that announcement, Apostolopoulos described a notion of dissatisfaction with the “present administration of the Q program.”
“Over the previous few months, we’ve heard from the Q Grader group — a key group of specialists who use the SCA cupping and grading protocols — that they really feel underserved and underrepresented within the present administration of the Q program,” Apostolopoulos wrote in 2022. “Although the SCA doesn’t administer the Q program, we take this matter significantly and are taking mandatory steps to make sure SCA’s cupping and grading protocols are serving the worth chain as supposed, and to assist espresso cuppers and producers.”
Representatives of CQI and the SCA declined DCN’s requests to touch upon the report relating to that message on the time.
In yesterday’s announcement, CQI CEO Michael Sheridan, who joined the group in late 2023, stated, “We’re happy with the function we now have performed within the first 20 years of the Q, and honored by the way in which it has been embraced within the espresso business… And we’re excited to companion with the Specialty Espresso Affiliation to evolve the Q to fulfill the calls for of the business as we speak.”
CQI has arrange a Q “transition” FAQ web page on its web site.
DCN could have extra as this story develops.
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