SCA COFFEE SKILLS PROGRAM

Learn the practical skills you need behind the espresso bar: learn how to set your grinder, milk techniques and latte art, health and safety, customer service, and basic business practices

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Barista Skills can be studied at three different levels:

1. Foundation* is for those new to the coffee industry and focuses on the key skills required to set your grinder, brew espresso and foam and texture milk for cappuccinos.  No previous barista experience is required for this course.

2. Intermediate* provides a deeper understanding of the coffee itself and builds on the practical skills learnt at Foundation level. Milk techniques, including latte art, are introduced as well as health and safety, customer service and basic business. This course is suitable for people already working as baristas;

3. Professional level is suitable for baristas with considerable experience who have also completed the Intermediate qualification. It takes both a scientific and managerial perspective to coffee and making espresso-based drinks

Learn about the variety of methods for brewing coffee and the variables that affect quality. The Brewing module is hands-on across a range of devices, from automatic gravity brewers to V60, siphon, clever dripper and French press, and covers grind setting, the seven essential elements of brewing, and measuring solubles concentration and solubles yield.

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Brewing can be studied at three different levels:

1. Foundation* introduces the beginner to the different ways of brewing coffee, from V60 and siphon to clever dripper and French press;

2. Intermediate* is a hands-on workshop where you will match your grind setting to your brewing method, work through the seven essential elements of brewing, and learn to scientifically measure solubles concentration (coffee strength) and calculate solubles yield (extraction) on the ratio-based Brewing Control Chart;

3. Professional takes the science further, covering particle size distribution, the effect of water temperature and water quality on brewing and flavour, wetting and bypass, and mastering navigation of the ratio-based Brewing Control Chart.

Learn about the essentials of sensory assessment in a practical and interactive way. Sensory Skills investigates how we perceive what we taste, how to evaluate a coffee's characteristics using the SCA's Coffee Value Assessment, and how to put that to work in a business.

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Our Academy offers Sensory Skills at the following levels:

1. Foundation* covers the essentials of sensory assessment in a practical, interactive way. It looks at how we perceive what we taste, at acidity, bitterness and mouthfeel in coffee, and at the Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel, and includes cupping with the SCA Descriptive and Affective Forms under the Coffee Value Assessment Protocol;

2. Intermediate* is ideal for someone already working in the area who wants to develop their sensory knowledge. It covers physiology, neurology and psychology, difference testing and triangulations, cupping with the SCA Descriptive and Affective Forms, and setting up a sensory program and panel;

3. Professional prepares you to lead sensory work in a coffee business, covering bias and error, thresholds and sensitivity, descriptive profiling, panel training and calibration, and where to apply sensory in shelf life, consumer testing and new product development.

Learn about the roasting process: roaster basics and how to control the roast, the roast cycle and its critical events, producing and using a roast profile, the physical and chemical changes the bean undergoes, roast defects, and safety, cleaning and maintenance in the roasting plant.

Our Academy offers SCA Roasting Skills at the following levels:

1. Foundation* gives a basic understanding of the roasting process, including the roast cycle and how to control sensory aspects of the coffee by roasting light or dark;

2. Intermediate builds on the basics covered in Foundation and covers the roast profile and its relationship to colour and sensory expression, development time, the physical and chemical changes the bean undergoes, Rate of Rise, basic thermodynamics and heat transfer, sample roasting, and safety and maintenance in the roasting plant.

3. Professional gives you the skills and knowledge needed as a manager to plan and execute quality control, create a product range to meet different preferences, calculate production costs and ensure efficient production

Learn about the key concepts surrounding green coffee: production, processing, grading, shipping, storage, arrival at destination, as well as coffee contracts and portfolio management.

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Our Academy offers SCA Green Coffee at the following levels:

1. Foundation covers the key concepts surrounding green coffee, from growing the plant, through processing, shipping, storage and arrival at a roaster.  It includes an introduction to cupping and coffee grading;

2. Intermediate looks at green coffee in greater detail and builds the core vocational skills needed by people who work with green coffee daily: botany and world production, farming, processing and drying, grading and defect terminology aligned with the Coffee Value Assessment Protocol, storage and transport, and green coffee markets and contracts;

3. Professional prepares you for managerial work in green coffee, covering botany and the impact of climate change, farm management, processing methodologies, grading for physical and sensory defects, storage and transport, production data, futures markets, and purchasing strategy and risk management.

Learn to use the SCA Coffee Value Assessment in your daily cupping: the CVA sensory references, the 15-point intensity scales, CATA lists, the nine-point affective scales, and the CVA Descriptive, Affective and Extrinsic Forms.

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The SCA Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) Course for Cuppers is a single-level course for practising cuppers who currently use the 2004 SCA cupping protocol, including professional cuppers, Q Graders and anyone who cups regularly. There is no formal prerequisite. The course is built around full cupping sessions, so you leave having used each form rather than only having read about it.

The professional licensing course for coffee evaluators, now run by the Specialty Coffee Association. Over six days you carry out physical, descriptive, affective and extrinsic assessments, alongside triangulation, olfactory categories, main taste solutions and roasting problems.

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This is a single-level licensing course. Participants who pass all nine exam components, eight practical and one written, become licensed Q Graders. There is no formal prerequisite, but working experience of Coffee Value Assessment and a high level of sensory acuity are strongly recommended. If CVA is new to you, take the SCA CVA Course for Cuppers first.

Learn how coffee reaches the cup: the specialty coffee value chain, growing regions and varieties, processing methods, exporting and importing, roasting, storage and freshness, sensory assessment and cupping, and water and brewing. The course includes guided tastings and a cupping session.

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SCA Introduction to Coffee is a single-level course and the recommended starting point of the SCA Coffee Skills Program. No experience is required, and it is an ideal first step before Barista Skills, Brewing, Sensory Skills, Roasting or Green Coffee. It also introduces the SCA Coffee Value Assessment, the system now used across the industry to describe and evaluate coffee.