Bean grading
The cut test, the bean count and the defect percentage. This is where fermentation care is rewarded, or is not.
Grading assesses a sample against two measures. The cut test slices beans lengthways and counts how many are fully fermented brown and fissured, how many are slaty purple, and how many are mouldy, germinated or flat. The bean count records how many beans make up 100 grams, which is a proxy for size.
The cut test is the more consequential. It is the mechanism by which a well-fermented lot earns a higher price, and where that mechanism is weak — as it has been across much of Indonesia — farmers rationally stop fermenting. A great deal of what looks like a quality problem in the cup is a grading problem in the supply chain.
What it does
Assesses a sample by cut test and bean count, producing a defect percentage and a size grade that determine price.
Why it matters
It is the price signal that rewards fermentation. Where grading does not differentiate, fermentation quality collapses because nobody is paid for it.
When it goes wrong
Grading applied loosely or not at all, which removes the incentive to ferment properly and is a supply-chain failure rather than a farming one.
Related
Techniques that depend on this
- Setting up a chocolate tastingThe cut test that decides whether a lot is well fermented. It is the closest thing the trade has to an objective quality measure before roasting.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Chocolate Science and Technology — Wiley-Blackwell(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)