Indonesian Coffee Grades: The SNI Defect Count System

Indonesian green coffee is graded primarily by defect count, under the national standard known as SNI, the Indonesian National Standard. This is the number you see attached to a Sumatran or Javanese offer as Grade 1, Grade 2, and so on. It is worth understanding properly, because it works differently from the screen size grading used in some other origins, and because it tells you something specific and limited about what is in the bag.

How the system works

Rather than sorting by bean size alone, the Indonesian standard assigns a grade based on the number of defects found in a sample of green coffee. A defect can be a black bean, a broken bean, a stone, a husk fragment, an insect damaged bean, and so on, and each type carries a defect value. The values are tallied across a 300 gram sample, and the total places the lot in a grade band. Fewer defects means a higher grade. The same framework covers both arabica and robusta, with the grade bands applied to each.

The arabica grade bands

Under the Indonesian standard, the defect count bands per 300 gram sample are as follows. These bands are defined under the Indonesian standard SNI 01-2907-2008. The standard is revised periodically, so confirm the current grade definitions when they matter to a specific contract.

• Grade 1: a maximum of 11 defects.
• Grade 2: 12 to 25 defects.
• Grade 3: 26 to 44 defects.
• Grade 4a: 45 to 60 defects.
• Grade 4b: 61 to 80 defects.
• Grade 5: 81 to 150 defects.
• Grade 6: 151 to 225 defects.

Most Indonesian specialty arabica is exported as Grade 1, the cleanest band. Robusta is graded under the same defect count framework, with grading applied to its own lots. Note that the Indonesian defect system uses a 300 gram sample, which differs from the 350 gram sample used in the Specialty Coffee Association system, so a lot has to be recounted on the correct sample size before the two systems can be compared directly.

Preparation descriptors

Alongside the grade number, you will often see preparation descriptors that tell you how much additional sorting the coffee has had. Terms in this family signal extra hand sorting or machine sorting beyond the base grade, which removes more defects and produces a cleaner, more uniform lot. These descriptors vary by exporter and are not as tightly standardised as the grade bands, so it is worth confirming exactly what a given preparation means for a specific offer.

What a grade does and does not tell you

This is the part buyers most need to understand. A grade reflects defect count, not cup quality. A clean Grade 1 lot has had its physical defects controlled, which is a floor on quality and a good sign, but the grade says nothing directly about how the coffee tastes, what it scores, or how it was grown and processed. Two Grade 1 lots can cup very differently. Use the grade as a measure of physical preparation, and use cup scores, origin, processing, and your own sample approval to judge flavour. The grade is the start of due diligence on quality, not the end of it.

Where to go next

To see how processing shapes the cup behind the grade, see Processing. For the origins these grades are applied to, see Gayo, Mandheling, Lampung, and Java, or return to the coffee overview.

If you want help reading a grade and preparation against an actual offer, we can walk through it. Contact Us to start.