Grading reference
East African Coffee Grades
A grade is contract language. It tells you how a parcel was prepared and separated, and it lets two parties agree on a deliverable. What it does not do — outside Ethiopia — is tell you how the coffee tastes.
Read this before comparing grades
Grades describe preparation, bean size and defect tolerance. Outside Ethiopia’s classification, which includes a cup component, a grade designation does not by itself predict cup quality — confirm every parcel on the sample.
Side by side
What each system separates on
The systems are not variants of one another. They separate coffee on different properties, which is why the designations do not translate.
| Origin | Separates on | Designations | Cup included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanzania | Bean size (screen), then density | AA, A, AB, B, C, PB, E, TT, UG | No |
| Kenya | Bean size (screen), then density | E, AA, AB, PB, C, TT, T, MH/ML | No |
| Uganda | Screen and defect specification; trade designations for Arabica | Screen 18/17/15/14/12, FAQ, Bugisu AA/A/B/PB, WUGAR, DRUGAR | No |
| Ethiopia | Raw defect count combined with a cup evaluation | Grade 1–9, plus Q1/Q2 for specialty | Yes — the only one in the region |
| Rwanda | Defect count and screen | Grade 1, Grade 2, plus explicit screen bands | No |
| Burundi | Defect count and screen | Grade A, Grade B, plus explicit screen bands | No |
The traps this table is meant to prevent
- Burundian Grade A is not Kenyan AA. One is the top class of a two-tier defect-and-screen system; the other is a size separation inside a seven-grade ladder.
- Ethiopian Grade 3 washed is not Ethiopian Grade 3 natural. The defect allowances differ by preparation, so the number alone is incomplete. Always state the preparation with the grade.
- Ugandan FAQ is not a fixed standard. Fair Average Quality is contracted against a stated defect and moisture basis that varies by crop and cleaning line. Confirm the basis in writing.
- Kenyan MH/ML is not a natural. Mbuni is dried whole cherry that generally includes over-ripes, unders and ground-collected fruit — a different product from a deliberately produced natural, and it should be specified separately.
- TT is a density grade, not a size grade. In both Kenya and Tanzania it is what a gravity table lifts off the AA/AB run. Same size, lower density, and it usually cups flatter.
Size grades
Where the size grades sit against the screen
Most East African grade ladders are screen ladders with letters on them. Plotting them together shows how the origins line up — and where they genuinely do not.
Screen number
Kenyan and Tanzanian size grades occupy the same screen ladder but cut it differently — Kenyan AB spans screens 15–16 while Tanzanian AB combines the A and B separations, and Kenyan AA starts a screen lower than Tanzanian AA. Ugandan Robusta is quoted as the screen itself rather than a letter. Rwandan and Burundian grades are defect classes with a screen floor rather than size bands, which is why they read as wide bars: a Grade 1 parcel is screen 15 and above, not a screen 15–16 separation.
Bands show where each designation normally sits. Preparation varies by mill and by contract, and peaberry is separated on its own slotted-screen run and is not plotted here. Position on this chart says nothing about cup quality.
| Screen | Aperture | Approx. mm | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen 20 | 20/64" | 7.94 | Above the normal commercial run. Encountered when separating elephant and conjoined beans. |
| Screen 19 | 19/64" | 7.54 | Used as the upper bound of an AA separation when a mill wants to strip out oversized and malformed beans. |
| Screen 18 | 18/64" | 7.14 | The reference large-bean screen across East Africa. Defines AA in Kenya and Tanzania and the largest routinely traded Ugandan Robusta parcel. |
| Screen 17 | 17/64" | 6.75 | The second half of most AA specifications (17/18) and a grade in its own right in Tanzania. Frequently quoted as "screen 17 up". |
| Screen 16 | 16/64" | 6.35 | The upper half of the AB block, and the most common tightened screen request on Rwandan and Burundian washed lots. |
| Screen 15 | 15/64" | 5.95 | The practical floor for most specialty preparations and the volume workhorse of Ugandan Robusta. |
| Screen 14 | 14/64" | 5.56 | Smaller commercial separations. Below this point, size stops being a useful proxy for anything in a specialty context. |
| Screen 13 | 13/64" | 5.16 | Small commercial Robusta and the lower peaberry separations. |
| Screen 12 | 12/64" | 4.76 | The smallest screen in routine commercial use, mostly for soluble-bound Robusta and by-product parcels. |
By origin
Each system in full
Every origin page covers the complete grade set, what each designation encodes, and the contract language that goes with it.
- TanzaniaTanzania Coffee Board (TCB), with the auction system centred on MoshiAA · A · AB · B · C · +5 more
- UgandaNational coffee regulation and export certification, historically administered by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA)Screen 18 · Screen 17 · Screen 15 · Screen 14 / 12 · FAQ · +4 more
- KenyaGrading and marketing governed under Kenyan coffee regulations, with weekly auctions at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange alongside direct salesE · AA · AB · PB · C · +3 more
- EthiopiaGrade 1–9 classification combining raw defect count and cup score, administered under the Ethiopian coffee authorities alongside the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX)Grade 1 · Grade 2 · Grade 3 · Grade 4 · Grade 5 · +1 more
- RwandaExport grading and quality oversight administered through Rwanda’s national agricultural export authorityGrade 1 · Grade 2 · Screen 16+
- BurundiExport quality control and grading administered through Burundi’s national coffee regulatory frameworkGrade A · Grade B · Screen 16+
Questions