Coffee Glossary

Coffee Industry Glossary

Three abbreviations appear throughout coffee reference material:

• ICO: International Coffee Organization, a source of coffee trade definitions and statistics.
• SCA: Specialty Coffee Association, which publishes coffee standards and assessment resources.
• WCR: World Coffee Research, which maintains a catalogue of coffee varieties.

Use this page alongside the guides accessible from home. Entries give a short definition, followed by an example or alternative name where useful.

Key Terminology Explained

Keep these distinctions in mind:

• Species versus variety: Arabica is a species; Java is a variety within arabica.
• Processing versus roasting: Processing prepares harvested coffee for roasting. Roasting heats green beans to develop roasted coffee.
• Strength versus extraction: A concentrated drink is not necessarily highly extracted. These describe different measurements.
• Body versus flavour: Body describes perceived weight in the mouth, rather than a particular taste.

Glossary of Coffee Terms

A to F

• Arabica: Coffee of the species Coffea arabica.
• Blend: A mixture of coffees, such as beans from different origins.
• Body: Coffee’s perceived weight in the mouth, from light to heavy.
• Burrs: Grinding surfaces that crush coffee beans between them.
• Cherry: The coffee plant’s fruit, which contains the seeds called beans.
• Crema: The golden-brown foam on an espresso.
• Cultivar: A cultivated plant variety selected or developed by people.
• Cupping: A structured method of tasting and assessing coffee.
• Decaffeinated coffee, or decaf: Coffee from which caffeine has been extracted.
• Dry process: Another name for natural processing.
• Espresso: Concentrated coffee brewed by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee under pressure.
• Fermentation: Microbial activity that breaks down substances during coffee processing.

G to M

• Green coffee: Raw, unroasted coffee beans.
• Honey process: Processing in which depulped coffee dries with some sticky mucilage attached.
• Instant coffee, or soluble coffee: Dried, water-soluble coffee extract.
• Java: An arabica variety; its name alone does not establish where a particular coffee was grown.
• Jute sack: A hessian sack used to store or transport green coffee.
• Lot: An identified batch of coffee.
• Microlot: A small, separately handled lot of coffee.
• Mouthfeel: Coffee’s texture in the mouth, such as creamy or oily.

N to Z

• Natural process: Drying coffee inside the whole cherry before removing its outer layers.
• Peaberry: A rounded bean formed when one seed develops instead of the usual pair.
• Portafilter: The removable handle and basket assembly that holds grounds in an espresso machine.
• Puck: The compacted bed of ground coffee used for espresso.
• Quality control, or QC: Checks against specified requirements.
• Roasting: Heating green coffee to produce roasted beans.
• Robusta: The trade name commonly used for coffee of the species Coffea canephora.
• Screen size: Bean size classified using screens.
• Specialty coffee: Coffee recognised for distinctive attributes that give it additional value. The SCA’s definition is broader than a cupping score alone.
• Tamping: Compacting ground coffee in an espresso basket.
• Variety: A distinct plant type within a species, such as Java within arabica.
• Washed process, or wet process: Removing fruit material and mucilage before drying the coffee in parchment.
• Yield: Output. In farming it concerns the crop; in an espresso recipe it usually means the finished drink’s mass.
• Zero-bypass brewing: A brewer design intended to prevent water escaping around the coffee bed rather than passing through it.

Coffee Bean Anatomy

A coffee bean is a seed, not the whole fruit. Working from the outside towards the centre:

• Exocarp: The cherry’s outer skin.
• Pulp: The fleshy material beneath the skin.
• Mucilage: The sticky inner fruit material surrounding the parchment.
• Parchment, or endocarp: The protective layer outside the seed’s thin silverskin.
• Silverskin, also written silver skin: The thin covering around the bean.
• Endosperm: The seed’s storage tissue, forming most of the bean.
• Embryo: The young plant within the seed.

These names explain processing descriptions: removing pulp is not the same operation as removing parchment.

Brewing Terminology

• Bloom: Initial wetting of grounds at the beginning of brewing, often accompanied by bubbling and expansion as gas escapes.
• Brew ratio: The relationship between coffee and water or beverage, expressed by weight. Always identify which is meant.
• Channelling, US spelling channeling: Uneven flow in which water travels preferentially through particular parts of the coffee bed.
• Contact time: How long water and grounds remain in contact during brewing.
• Dose: The mass of dry ground coffee used.
• Drawdown: The draining phase as liquid passes through the coffee bed and filter.
• Extraction: The removal of soluble material from grounds into brewing water.
• Extraction yield, or EY: The mass extracted, expressed as a percentage of the original dry coffee dose.
• Strength: The concentration of dissolved coffee material in the drink.
• Total dissolved solids, or TDS: A measure used to express that concentration, commonly as a percentage.

For filter and immersion recipes, 1:16 means one part coffee to sixteen parts water by weight: for example, 15 g coffee and 240 g water. For espresso, 18 g in and 36 g out describes a 1:2 dose-to-yield ratio, not the amount of water entering the machine. These examples explain the notation, rather than prescribing a recipe.