On 4 November 2024, the Specialty Coffee Association adopted as official standards three parts of the Coffee Value Assessment (CVA): sample preparation and cupping mechanics (SCA-102), descriptive assessment (SCA-103) and affective assessment (SCA-104). The announcement, also reported by Daily Coffee News on 5 November, is explicit: those components supersede the 2004 cupping protocol and form, the sheet that for two decades condensed specialty coffee into a single score out of 100. By late 2024 the change was no longer a pilot: it was the rule.
The 2004 form, published by the then SCAA, joined description and liking on one page. The CVA, set out at sca.coffee/value-assessment, opens the cup through four lenses. The physical looks at green coffee: color, defects, moisture, size; it draws on the 2004 grading system and sits in the practical exam of the Q course. The descriptive records, in standardized language, aromas, flavors, texture and aftertaste, and their intensities, without asking whether the cupper “loves” the coffee. The affective does ask for the impression of quality — personal preference or that of a known market. The extrinsic (SCA Standard 105) values what is not in the cup and is on the bag: origin, traceability, process, certifications, farm story.
A language a Salvadoran producer can use
For El Salvador the shift is not laboratory cosmetics. A Chalatenango Pacamara, a shade-grown Bourbon in Apaneca or a Metapán Gesha are not explained by an 87 alone. The descriptive lens lets you say *what* is in the cup; the affective, *who* it fits; the extrinsic, *why* the lot is worth more than defects and score: variety, plot, honey or natural process, denomination of origin from the Salvadoran Coffee Institute. It is a shared language between the grower on a volcanic slope and the buyer in Tokyo, Seoul or Hamburg. The buyer stops translating a number; the producer stops receiving an opaque verdict.
Mario Fernández, SCA technical officer, spoke of a worldwide benchmark aligned with modern sensory science: high-resolution data, not a single digit. CEO Yannis Apostolopoulos placed the CVA in the mission of a more equitable specialty sector for the whole chain. That matters in a small origin: the premium does not come only from contest medals; it comes from being able to name attributes the market already pays for.
In April 2025, Daily Coffee News documented the next chapter: the CVA was advancing in producing origins and the Q program was being reoriented toward the new system. SCA and the Coffee Quality Institute announced that, from 1 October 2025, an “evolved” Q would be built on the CVA, not on the 2004 form. For Salvadoran cuppers and labs — including those of the ISC — the lesson is practical: learn the four lenses now, not when the client already requires them in the contract. The CVA does not erase Salvadoran highland quality. It gives it a vocabulary that fits on the cupping table and on the lot card.
