Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth

If you ask two specialty professionals what makes a high-quality coffee, you’ll likely get a surprisingly consistent answer: clean, sweet, juicy, bright. To an outsider, they would be forgiven for thinking coffee quality is universally defined. But the truth is more sober. In this episode, we examine how a simple cupping form helped create a universal idea of quality. We then look at the evidence that, in fact, it’s just the personal preferences of a small group of people masquerading as universal quality. Please support my work directly at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories Other ways you can help: Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story Write a review on Apple Podcasts Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter Go deeper into the story of quality: 2004 cupping form from the Specialty Coffee Association of America SCAA Coffee Cuppers Handbook (4th edition, 2011) Cup of Excellence cupping form Kenneth Liberman's book, " Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity " SCA's video series on the CVA presented by Peter Giuliano Check out Standart , the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here . How does Perfect Moose detect what kind of milk is in the pitcher? Click here to find out. Pull a shot on the gorgeous Slayer Steam Single . What does the Marco MilkPal look like to you? WALL-E? Something Steve Jobs would be proud of? Check it out here .

You can listen to Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Coffee Quality, Part 2: How “quality” became a myth is an episode from Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries by James Harper.

This episode is 25:33 long.

This episode was published on Dec 8, 2025.

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