Coffee Quality INSTITUTE

Promoting a higher standard and common language for the coffee community with tools to educate, collaborate and promote coffee quality worldwide.

Have you heard of a “Q Grader”? They are skilled professional cuppers, certified by CQI and kept in tight calibration with their peers through yearly check-ins and regular exams. This certification is highly regarded within the specialty coffee industry, and there are only about 6,000 certified Q Arabica Graders worldwide. The Q Grader certification is the gold standard within the coffee industry, and can be especially useful for coffee professionals in QC, QA, green coffee buying, coffee production, and import/export work.

CQI offers many different courses on Quality Evaluation and Post-Harvest Processing, from beginner to advanced professional level. As one of only 54 Q Arabica Instructors, I can offer CQI classes and certified Q Graders in qualified labs around the world in both English and Spanish. Increasing the number of Q Graders in coffee producing countries is critical, and I am committed to certifying Spanish-speakers whenever possible.

Learn more about CQI’s Quality Evaluation classes here. Learn about hosting a course in your lab here.