Classificação Oficial Brasileira (COB) / New York method

Brazil's official system (Instrução Normativa MAPA nº 8 of 11 June 2003) classifies raw green coffee by species group, bean shape and screen, cup ('bebida') and type ('tipo'). Type is set by counting weighted defects in a 300 g sample, screens run 10 to 19 for flat beans and 8 to 13 for peaberry (moca), and the beverage scale runs from estritamente mole down to rio zona. Export descriptions such as 'Santos NY 2/3 screen 17/18 strictly soft' combine type, screen and cup; the IN 8 text itself gives the vocabulary and procedure, while the defect-to-type table is reproduced in the FAO post-harvest annex and importer charts.

Brazil

Grades
7
Defect sample
300g
Screen sizes
7listed
Origins using it
1

The grades

In this atlas's own words
GradeWhat it requires
Tipo 2Up to 4 defect-equivalents in a 300 g sample; the best commercial type (NY 2).
Tipo 3Up to 12 defect-equivalents per 300 g.
Tipo 4Up to 26 defect-equivalents per 300 g (NY 4).
Tipo 5Up to 46 defect-equivalents per 300 g.
Tipo 6Up to 86 defect-equivalents per 300 g.
Tipo 7Up to 160 defect-equivalents per 300 g.
Tipo 8Up to 360 defect-equivalents per 300 g; above this the lot is Fora de Tipo and cannot be sold without re-processing.

How it is measured

Screen sizes

  • chato graúdo 19/18/17
  • chato médio 16/15
  • chato miúdo 14 and smaller
  • moca graúdo 13/12/11
  • moca médio 10
  • moca miúdo 9 and smaller
  • bica corrida = unsorted or spanning four or more screens

Defects per 300 g

Defects are weighted equivalents: intrinsic defects (black, sour, green, broken, shell, insect-damaged) and foreign matter (stones, sticks, husk) each convert to full defects by a table; a bean with two defects counts once at the heavier weight. Brazilian law caps foreign defects at 1%.

Cup terms

Estritamente mole
all the attributes of 'mole' but more pronounced
Mole
pleasant, mild, sweet
Apenas mole
slightly sweet and smooth without astringency
Duro
acrid, astringent, harsh but without phenolic taint
Riado
light iodoform taint
Rio
pronounced iodoform taste
Rio Zona
very strong phenolic aroma and flavour

Per-type defect ceilings (4/12/26/46/86/160/360, with half-types and +/- points between) are read from the FAO annex's Brazil/New York table; the IN 8 annex table did not extract cleanly from the hosted PDF.

Other grading systems