The Q Arabica Grader Certification
What I’ve learned.
Recently I had the opportunity to undertake the most difficult test I have ever attempt to pass, the Q Arabica Grader Certification offered by the CQI. The certification was created in order to have a common language among coffee professionals, those focused in quality rather than in quantity. The aim of the certification is to help improving the livelihoods of many coffee farmers around the world by providing a honest and technical feedback about the coffee they grow. This can have a direct impact in the way coffee farmers are being paid, if they’re producing high quality coffee then more money they can received for it, however many coffee farmers have no idea how to assess the quality of their coffee, in most cases they don’t even have no access to formal education, and some are even not growing coffee anymore because the price paid is too low, they need all the help the industry can provide.
The certification was hosted and conducted by Coffee Laboratory that by the way is the only SCA premier campus in Ireland offering all of the SCA coffee skills program: Barista skills, Brewing, Green Coffee, Roasting and Sensory Skills and from now on it’s also the only authorized campus offering Q grader courses, this one was the first Q grader certification ran by Coffee Laboratory and it feels quite awesome that we were part of it.
The Q lasted 6 days, a very long week I have to say, I ended up with my tongue burned, extremely tired and with some ego destroyed. The certification is divided in two blocks, three days of training and three day of exams. In the first three days I received a huge amount of information on basics of coffee chemistry, green coffee grading, roast grading, cupping standards, triangulations plus lots more of information. I had the chance to practice every lesson, I tasted many coffees, some great and some very bad, and all this it’s important to created a solid base on what quality is when talking about Specialty Coffee standards. The second part of the course, the other three days, I was tested to the limit, a total of 19 different exams, all very intense, in which I had the chance to evaluate my skills and coffee knowledge, the later in an 100 questions written exam for which I had 1 hour, enough time though. I won’t get in detail about how every test is performed, if you spend some time researching, you’ll find different blogs talking about how to be ready for the Q, many of this blogs includes photographs as well as diet recommendations and more.
So, how did I do? Well from 19 different test I successfully passed 13, this for me was a great result considering that I started my career in coffee 1 year ago, I invested lots of time reading, asking questions, brewing lots of coffee, I participated in competitions, watched tutorials about coffee roasting, I’ve been teaching people how to brew coffee at home, I have undertake 4 different SCA courses, I volunteered in some coffee events and I am one of the SCA Irish Chapter Ambassadors… I did a lot in a short period of time and there’s much more to be done.
I think that once you discover your passion the only person that can stop you is yourself.
The Q gave me a true perspective of my current skills, it gave me a real feedback on what I need to improve and what new stuff I need to learn, I don’t regret the investment. I still need to retake the 6 test I failed if I want to be a certified Q Grader, and I’m currently training very hard in order to achieve that objective.
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No matter which dream you’re following, just don’t give up, ask questions, read about the topic you love, participate in competitions, volunteer, teach, inspire and allow yourself to be inspired by others, don’t be afraid of failing,
we need to embrace failure if we’re aspiring to win.
When I started the Q my thoughts were all about “I need to be certified, I need that certificate” towards the end of the week my thoughts had changed “I need to prepare myself more, I need to learn way more stuff” honestly I felt very good with that result.
I had the chance to be in my country, Colombia, few weeks ago in a coffee farm located in Tres Esquinas, Tolima. I share with them coffees they never tasted before, I show them how to set a cupping session and how it’s done, they were amazed and I was fortunate they allowed me to do that, at the end of my visit the coffee farmer told me “I didn’t know that my coffee tasted like this, it’s very nice…” it was a great experience and that’s one of the the reasons why I decided to undertake the Q.
As I said there’s a lot more new stuff to learn, now I understand the true meaning of Socrates’s words:
One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing. — Socrates.
