Coffee Abbreviations

Basic abbreviations for coffee

Latin America

SHG – Strictly High Grown – coffee beans solely from high altitudes; higher density, higher quality

SHB – Strictly Hard Bean – just like SHG, refers to beans of higher density, i.e. higher quality

HB – Hard Bean – lower class of quality, coffee is grown at lower altitudes than SHB

Kenya

These abbreviations usually denote the classification of beans according to bean size, the number of faults and bean density; from the finest downwards

AA TOP – bean size 17/18 – most expensive micro lots; selections from harvests

AA Plus – bean size 17/18

AB Faq – bean size 16/17 

Universal

Gr x, Grade x – class of quality; does not really mean anything as every country uses different standards

Bourbon – variety of a coffee plant from Reunion (Bourbon) Island; a very fine sub-variety of arabica

FT – Fair Trade – coffee certified in accordance with Trans Fair International standards

Organic – organic coffee certified as such by a certifying organisation (for Latin America it usually is Bio Latina)

FTO – Fair Trade Organic

Yellow Honey – Yellow Catuai – a sub-variety of arabica in combination with the Honey processing method (pressing freshly picked coffee cherries and then drying the coffee on African beds)

Scr. 17/18 – bean size – does not denote quality, just the standards of a particular country