Reading a lot
Indian Coffee Grades: AAA, AA, A, AB and PB
European buyers read an Indian offer list through Kenyan or Colombian habits and quietly assume the wrong thing. The letters look the same and do not mean the same.
Grade in Indian coffee is a size and form classification applied after curing. It says the coffee was screened and what came out of the screens. It is not a cup score and it is not a quality rating, though the two correlate loosely because larger beans usually come from better-fed trees.
The arabica ladder
Indian arabica is graded broadly as follows. Screen sizes are in 64ths of an inch.
| Grade | Bean form | Screen, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| AAA | Flat, largest | 18 and above |
| AA | Flat, large | 17/18 |
| A | Flat | 16/17 |
| AB | Flat, A and B combined | 15/16 upward |
| PB | Peaberry, round | Graded separately |
| C | Flat, smaller | Below AB |
| Bulk / BBB | Mixed smalls | — |
AB is the important one to understand. It is not a defect grade. It is the combination of A and B screens, and it is the broadest and most widely traded arabica grade in India. A great deal of very good Indian coffee is sold as AB simply because that is where the bulk of the screen distribution falls.
A European buyer conditioned to treat "AA" as the premium and everything below as lesser will systematically overpay in India and miss the value.
Where it differs from Kenya
Kenyan grading uses the same letters against different definitions, and Kenyan AA carries a market premium built on decades of association with a particular cup profile.
| Kenya | India | |
|---|---|---|
| AA | Screen 17/18, strong premium | Screen 17/18, modest premium |
| AB | A and B combined, standard | A and B combined, the volume grade |
| PB | Peaberry | Peaberry |
| Implies cup quality? | Loosely, by convention | Less so |
The letters are a coincidence of both systems using screen sizes and the Latin alphabet. Do not carry a Kenyan price expectation into an Indian negotiation in either direction.
Washed and unwashed prefixes
Indian grades are frequently prefixed by the processing:
- Plantation — washed arabica.
- Cherry — natural (dry processed) arabica.
- Parchment — arabica still in parchment, or washed arabica depending on context.
So "Plantation AA" is washed arabica, screen 17/18. "Cherry AB" is natural arabica on the combined A/B screens. This prefix carries more information about the cup than the letter does, and buyers often skip straight past it.
The robusta ladder
Robusta has its own grades, and the prefixes matter more.
| Grade | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kaapi Royale | Top washed robusta, largest screens — the flagship grade |
| Parchment AB | Washed robusta, A/B screens |
| Cherry AB | Natural robusta, A/B screens |
| Parchment PB | Washed robusta peaberry |
| Cherry PB | Natural robusta peaberry |
Kaapi Royale is the grade to ask about if you want to see what Indian robusta can do. See Indian robusta.
Monsooned grades
Monsooned coffee is graded after monsooning, because the bean swells during the process and its screen changes.
- Monsooned Malabar AA — the well-known arabica grade.
- Monsooned Basmani, Monsooned Robusta AA — others you may meet.
A pre-monsooning grade quoted on a monsooned lot is a mistake, and worth querying. Details in what is monsooned Malabar.
What to ask beyond the grade
The grade is the start of the specification, not the whole of it. For any lot, get:
- The underlying screens, as a range not a floor.
- Defect count and to what standard — see defect counting.
- Moisture at shipment.
- Whether it was hand-garbled and colour-sorted after screening.
That last one matters in India more than most origins, because hand-garbling is still normal practice and it is what removes what the machines leave.
Hoysala states grade, screen and moisture for every SKU on the offer list, with peaberry listed as its own grade and separate bag counts for India and the EU.
For how the grade sits among the other columns you are buying on, see how to read a green coffee offer list.