Lecture Description

For many years, specialty coffee has been defined by a point score, or a number of defects, or an aspirational goal. For the past three years, the Specialty Coffee Association has undertaken a project to develop a more rigorous way to define and measure specialty coffee quality, based on sensory science, economics, and feedback from the coffee community. In this lecture, we will summarize the work of the project so far and present the new cupping and quality assessment system. This is an essential update for cuppers, coffee buyers, producers, traders, and anyone interested in how coffee quality is understood and valued.

Date: Friday, June 23, 2023
Time: 2:15pm - 3:15pm EET

Location: Lecture Room 2

Presenter:

Kim Elena Ionescu
Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer, Specialty Coffee Association

Kim Elena Ionescu is the Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), where she develops strategy and leads action on behalf of coffee-centric businesses and organizations both large and small in the United States, Europe, and beyond to tackle the challenges coffee faces now and in the future.

Prior to joining the association, Kim spent a decade buying coffee and creating and directing sustainability at Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina, where she resides with her husband and two daughters. And although these days she is more likely to be found behind desks and podiums than cupping tables and espresso machines, Kim believes that innovation and collaboration across the coffee value chain are critical for our community to thrive.