In the trade, in order to classify a certain quality of coffee, there are different ways that consider the following characteristics:

• Origin
• Defects
• Botanic species
• Processing
• Year of crop
• Bean shape
• Colour

Origin:
It means the producing country and the area or the port of shipment. Sometimes it also shows the producing company or the exporter.

Defects and impurities:
The number of defects of the goods is considered (defective beans or foreign matters), usually a sample of 2/3 of pound, 300 grams;

Botanic species:
Usually it indicates the botanic species of the plant;

Processing:
Natural are the dry processed coffees. Washed are the wet processed coffees.

Year of crop:
It usually indicates a two-years period because the year of coffee production starts in July, but the crop dates changes from country to country. The following definitions can be found:
Old crop: coffee cropped two or more year before. Past crop: coffee cropped during the previous year. Current crop: coffee in process of being cropped. New crop: next crop. Besides these definitions, the crop can be Main Crop or Fly Crop (secondary crop).

Bean shape:
Flat bean - the bean is flat and sometimes lengthened.
Burbon - round and convex bean.
Caracolito - little and round bean (pearl).
Maragogype - particularly big bean.

Size of the bean:
It is indicated by the grader (crivello in Italian, crible in French). During the screening the beans are sifted using plates with calibrated holes. The diameter of the holes, indicated as 64th of inch, identifies the screen. So, for example, the coffee that doesn't pass through the diameter of 18/64 of inch is catalogued as grade 18 or more.

Colour:
The colour of coffee depends on the origin country, the botanic species, the preservation period: the yellow colour of the old crops of natural Arabica, the dark colour of Robusta, the green colour of the new crops of Arabica, until the blue colour of the washed Centre-America coffees.

green	Only at the beginning of the crop
greenish	Normal for mostly the whole year
light green
lightish	During the last two or three months
yellowish	Old crop coffee
yellow	Coffee of previous crops
even colour
irregular colour	With different content of humidity