BITS & PIECES
BECOMING A Q-GRADER
JAMES MENDOZA,QUALITY ASSURANCE PRODUCT SPECIALIST
Last week, I had the honor of being recognized as a Licensed
Q Grader - bestowed by the Coffee Quality Institute. Among
other aspects of their rigorous criteria to become licensed
were twenty-two tests to measure my expertise in grading and
classifying specialty coffee. Thankfully, I passed each test due
to the experience and knowledge that I have acquired through
my co-workers in the Quality Assurance Department; making
me the 6th Q-Grader at F. Gaviña & Sons, Inc.
I spent several weeks refining my olfactory senses (smell) by
learning to identify thirty-six aromas found in coffee. This was
quite an ordeal due to some of these aromas not being common
for me. Among the aromas were those of roasted peanuts,
roasted almonds, roasted hazelnuts and walnuts which
were challenging to distinguish because I am not particularly
fond of them. Therefore, I had to learn what these nuts smelled
like and associate them with something personal. However, as
the test quickly approached, my biggest concern was a severe
case of allergies which did not allow me to focus as much as I
would have liked to. I could not believe it…my allergies were
acting up…I couldn’t sleep… thoughts of failing entered my
mind…OMG... and then, I remembered my nasal spray…that
sure helped. I humbly admit that I passed all four olfactory
tests with 115%.
The training provided for all ten participants by a team of Gaviña employees was awesome, they gave us an idea as to what to
expect and how to achieve this recognition. We were given different triangulation tests to determine out of three cups which one
was different. We had to be very careful because none of us wanted to scald our tongues and lose any taste buds. The Gaviña
Team also reviewed green coffee grading and sensory skills. Sensory Skills deals with taste (salty, sweet, and sour). We had to
determine what was what, you might think “this is easy”, but when these solutions are mixed at different intensities, it is a whole
different story. Many of us were sweating bullets, but thanks to our fantastic trainers we overcame this obstacle.
On the last day of testing, after receiving several message from my co-workers, tasting a whole bunch of coffee (approx. 200
cups), and having my senses sensitive and perceptible to acidity, aromas, color, etc. I called them and said, “I DID IT! I AM A
Q – GRADER!”
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