'Fuck cuppings' as the daily operation tool at the roastery and coffee shop

I stole the name for this post from Colin Harmon and his Tamper Tantrum talk from 2015. If you haven't seen it, I very much recommend it.

This topic has been on my mind for at least 6 years and recently, my friend Gerben brought up this topic again. Everyday on social media, I see endless lines of cupping bowls. I believe in cuppings having great value at origin where you need to compare the quality and potential of the lots and also compare them side by side and check for defects. I believe in cupping when sensory training and roast profiling, that is a must. But that is it. And we try to do it effectively - one-two bowls per coffee.

How many times did you have a good cupping bowl that didn't brew that good? Or vice versa: How many times did you have a boring cupping bowl, but the brew was good? It happens a lot. And if the bowl doesn't cupp good, but the brew is great and nobody can taste anything wrong, what do you do? Do you serve the coffee? It's just a rhetorical business operation question.

As a barista, do you need cuppings to brew good coffee? You don't. It may be valuable if the barista does a bulk order of coffee for the shop, but otherwise it's just a waste of coffee. Roasters don't need to cupp an endless stream of bowls once a day. Coffee doesn't change that often. Cupping when profiling the roast, yes - to determine the quality of the profile/to detect roast defects. That is essential. But brewing should be the king after all. A QC cupping session of the whole portfolio? By all means, that's a great  and important practice, but we believe in efficiency, so once a week - one bowl of each coffee - is sufficient.