Cupping Protocol Ratio (8.25g per 150ml)

8.25 g per 150 ml water

Freshly ground coffee — Ground coarser than drip (75% passing a US #20 sieve); ideally ground within 15 minutes of cupping

150 ml at 93 °C ± 3 °C (approximately 200 °F)

Clean water — Water TDS should be 125–175 ppm; distilled or very soft water underextracts, hard water masks clarity

3–5 minutes (break crust at 4 minutes)

Steep time — No stirring, no agitation — a true immersion brew that mimics consistent extraction for all samples

207–266 ml capacity

Cupping bowl volume — Standard cupping bowl ensures consistent headspace and surface area for aromatics

Weigh 8.25 g of whole-bean coffee per 150 ml of water needed. Grind coarse (approximately the texture of raw sugar) immediately before cupping. Place grounds in the cupping bowl; assess dry fragrance. Pour 93 °C water directly onto the grounds in a circular motion, saturating fully. Allow to steep undisturbed for 4 minutes. At 4 minutes, break the crust by pushing through it three times with a spoon; inhale the released aromatics (wet aroma). Skim the remaining foam and grounds from the surface with two spoons. Begin tasting when temperature drops to approximately 71 °C; continue evaluating as the cup cools to 37 °C to capture the full flavour trajectory. Score on the SCA form across ten attributes: fragrance/aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, uniformity, clean cup, sweetness, and overall.

• Use the same water source across all samples — even minor mineral variation shifts perceived acidity and body, confounding comparison.
• Grind all samples in the same session and cover immediately: coffee loses 60% of volatile aromatics within 15 minutes of grinding.
• The 8.25 g/150 ml ratio is deliberately asymmetric to the Golden Cup ratio (1 g per 18 ml, or 55.5 g/L) — the two converge closely because SCA designed the cupping standard to mirror its brewing standard.
• Temperature of evaluation matters as much as brewing temperature: cupping at 71 °C evaluates high-note aromatics; at 60 °C body and sweetness dominate; at 37 °C any off-flavours (rubber, ferment, phenolic) become most apparent.
• When scaling cupping sets, always calculate from the ratio (not from a 'cups' count) — a standard five-bowl flight uses 5 × 8.25 g = 41.25 g of coffee and 750 ml of water.

• WCR (World Coffee Research) sensory lexicon cupping

  Uses the same SCA ratio but adds a 72-reference-standard aroma wheel and anchored intensity scales for trained panellists rather than the 100-point hedonic SCA form

• COE (Cup of Excellence) protocol

  Identical ratio but extends evaluation to 5 cups per sample per panel to account for uniformity scoring, and uses a strict 3-pass double-blind system

• Japanese kissa / kissaten evaluation pour

  Informal but influential tradition uses a slightly lighter ratio (6–7 g/100 ml) and paper filtration — not an immersion cup — but the systematic side-by-side flight structure parallels SCA methodology

• Espresso evaluation (dose:yield)

  A separate regime — 18–20 g in, 36–40 g out, in 25–30 seconds — governed by extraction yield % rather than a brew-weight ratio

• Golden Cup brew ratio (55 g per litre)

  SCA's recommendation for drip/filter coffee — numerically nearly identical to the cupping ratio, allowing evaluation samples to represent real-world brew results

• French press ratio (60–75 g per litre)

  Slightly stronger immersion brew — the closest home-brewing method to cupping in both mechanics and concentration

• Tea cupping standard (3 g per 150 ml)

  ISO 3103 tea cupping standard — same fixed-ratio philosophy but for tea leaf evaluation; the weight-to-volume logic is directly parallel

1. 1.SCA Cupping Protocols — Specialty Coffee Association (2015, updated 2018)
2. 2.The Coffee Roaster's Companion — Scott Rao (2014)
3. 3.God in a Cup — Michaele Weissman (2008)
4. 4.The World Atlas of Coffee — James Hoffmann (2014)

Confidence: high