Specialty Coffee Association (SCA)
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is the global trade body for specialty coffee. It was formed from the merger of the American (SCAA) and European (SCAE) associations, and it sets many of the standards, protocols, and education programs the industry runs on.
The SCA is the source of the widely cited framework where a coffee scoring 80+ points on a standardized cupping form is considered “specialty.”
To verify
The SCA has been overhauling its scoring system (the move toward the Coffee Value Assessment, replacing the classic 100-point cupping form). Confirm the current official protocol and score thresholds before teaching them as fixed.