Q Grader

The Q Grader certification is the industry gold standard for coffee quality grading, issued by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). Unlike the SCA Skills courses, it’s not split into Foundation, Intermediate, and Professional levels. It’s a single, intensive certification that qualifies you as a professional coffee grader.

The course covers cupping, sensory skills, green grading, roast identification, water analysis, and organic acid tasting. Candidates go through a series of exams testing their ability to score coffee accurately and consistently against a calibrated standard.

Once certified, you’re qualified to grade and score coffee professionally, a credential recognized globally across the specialty coffee trade. Certification is valid for three years before requiring recalibration.

Want me to pull the exact list of exam modules so we can visualize that instead of a stage graph, maybe as a breakdown of test categories?