Quaker
Quakers are underdeveloped coffee beans that lack sugars, preventing them from fully developing color and flavor during roasting.
Since these beans are difficult to detect in the green bean stage, they are typically identified only after roasting by their noticeably lighter color. To accurately distinguish them, coffee professionals use the Agtron scale (SCA’s coffee color measurement system), where quakers have a higher reading than properly developed beans.
These defective beans usually come from unripe coffee cherries, which are more common in natural (dry) process, as they are not removed like in washed (wet) process. Because quakers contribute astringent, harsh, and unbalanced flavors, the SCA mandates that specialty coffee must be free of these defective beans to ensure consistency and high quality.
