Two global SCA certifications. Two pillars of specialty coffee — how to taste it and how to brew it — taught together as one intensive course. Designed for beginners ready to skip the long way around.
The SCA Bundle: Brewing & Sensory Dual Foundation is Tasse Coffee Roastery's most efficient pathway into the SCA Coffee Skills Program. For the first time, we're combining the two foundational modules that every serious coffee professional starts with — Brewing Foundation and Sensory Skills Foundation — into a single coordinated programme rather than two separate weekends spaced months apart.
The logic is simple: brewing without tasting is guesswork, and tasting without brewing is theory. When you learn them together, every cupping informs the next brew, and every brew sharpens the next cupping. By the end, you walk away with two internationally recognised SCA Foundation certifications — and a working palate that can actually use them.
- Certifications: SCA Brewing Foundation + SCA Sensory Skills Foundation
- Level: Foundation (no prior experience required)
- Format: Private 1:1 or 1:2, hands-on
- Location: Tasse Coffee Roastery, Shinjuku, Tokyo
- Languages: English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese
- Price: ¥145,000 (combined — saves vs. booking separately)
- Prerequisites: None — just a love for coffee
Why Brewing & Sensory Belong Together
You cannot brew great coffee if you don't know what it should taste like — and you cannot evaluate a coffee fairly if you don't understand how it was made. The Dual Foundation is built on this premise. Across two intensive days, you'll alternate between the cupping table and the brew bar, training your palate and your hands in parallel so each skill reinforces the other.
- Why specialty coffee separates 'tasting' from 'brewing' — and why pros never do
- How a brew defect (over-extraction, channeling, stale beans) shows up in cupping
- How to calibrate your daily workflow: cup first, then dial in the brew
- The shared vocabulary the SCA uses across both disciplines
Side-by-side comparison: the same coffee brewed three different ways, evaluated on a cupping form so you can feel how brewing choices change perceived flavor.
Senses, Perception & the Tasting Mindset
Sensory training starts before the cup. You'll learn how the brain assembles flavor from smell, taste, mouthfeel and even sight — and how to slow down enough to actually notice what's there. This is the foundation that everything else in the sensory course rests on.
- The five basic tastes and how to recognise them in isolation
- Orthonasal vs. retronasal aroma — and why coffee changes flavor mid-sip
- Body, acidity, sweetness and bitterness as evaluative dimensions
- How to avoid the most common palate biases (anchoring, expectation, fatigue)
Reference solutions — diluted sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami samples — so you can train your palate against a known standard before tasting coffee.
The Coffee Flavor Wheel & Specialty vs. Commercial
The Coffee Flavor Wheel is the shared language of specialty coffee. You'll learn how to use it to describe what you taste with precision, and how to tell the difference between specialty-grade and commercial-grade coffee — the line that defines the entire industry.
- How the SCA Flavor Wheel and World Coffee Research Lexicon are structured
- Practical drills: moving from 'fruity' to 'red fruit' to 'raspberry'
- The SCA cupping form — score categories and how each one is judged
- What separates a coffee at 80+ points from a commodity-grade brew
Blind tasting flight: identify three coffees by region and grade using only your senses and the Flavor Wheel — no labels, no hints.
Mastering the Cupping Protocol
Cupping is the single most important quality-control tool in the coffee industry. From farm to roaster to cafe, this is how coffee gets evaluated. By the end of this module you'll be able to set up, score and break a cupping table to professional standard.
- SCA cupping protocol: dose, grind, water, ratio and timing
- The four stages — fragrance, aroma, breaking the crust, slurping
- How to score fragrance/aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance
- Calibration: how to align your palate with other cuppers in the room
A full SCA-style cupping with multiple origins — you'll set the table, run the protocol and complete a real cupping form alongside the instructor.
Coffee, Water & the Science of Extraction
Brewing begins here. You'll learn what coffee actually is in chemical terms, what water does inside the brew bed and why two cups made from the same beans can taste worlds apart. This is the theory layer that makes every later brewing decision make sense.
- What's inside the bean: solubles, oils, acids and the role of CO₂
- Why water composition (TDS, mineral content) is half the cup
- Extraction yield and strength — and how the SCA Brew Control Chart works
- The difference between under-, ideal and over-extraction in the cup
Hands-on measurement of extraction: brew the same coffee under three controlled conditions and chart where each result lands on the SCA Brew Control Chart.
The Brew Recipe — Grind, Ratio & Time
Every brew is governed by three controllable variables: how fine you grind, how much coffee-to-water you use and how long you let the two interact. Once you understand how to change them deliberately, brewing stops being guesswork and starts being a recipe you can dial in.
- Choosing grind size for different brewers and what particle distribution means
- Reading and writing a brew ratio (1:15, 1:16, 1:17) and when to choose each
- Pour technique, agitation and the role of the bloom
- How to taste-diagnose a brew and adjust the next one with confidence
Three V60s brewed side by side — each with one variable changed — so you can taste exactly how grind, ratio and time shift the cup.
Brew Devices Hands-On
Theory meets the bar. You'll work through the brewing methods the SCA Foundation covers — manual and automatic gravity brewers — building a feel for each device and learning when to reach for which. By the end you'll have brewed, tasted and adjusted on multiple platforms.
- Pour-over: V60 and Chemex — paper filters, pouring technique, rinse and bloom
- Immersion: French press and Aeropress — full-immersion extraction logic
- Automatic batch brew: dose, basket choice, and how to QC a machine brew
- Equipment care: grinder calibration, water filtration, cleaning routines
You brew each method yourself with instructor coaching, then take the cups to the cupping table — closing the loop between brewing and sensory in real time.
Who Is This Bundle For?
This is the most efficient entry point into the SCA programme. It's the right choice if you fit any of these:
- Aspiring baristas and coffee professionals who want both certifications on the CV from day one.
- Coffee shop owners and managers who need to evaluate beans, dial in brews and train staff to a published standard.
- Serious home enthusiasts who've moved past 'good enough' and want the real frameworks pros use.
- Travellers in Tokyo who want a high-value, certificate-earning experience that takes them deeper into specialty coffee.
What Comes After?
The Dual Foundation gives you both halves of the SCA's first rung. From here, each track has its own Intermediate and Professional levels you can pursue separately.
Brewing Intermediate dives into recipe design and the Brew Control Chart. Brewing Professional covers cafe-level QC, water chemistry and operations.
Sensory Intermediate trains formal triangulation, descriptive analysis and lexicon work. Sensory Professional develops calibration to industry-standard panels and quality systems.
Each module you complete contributes points toward the SCA Coffee Skills Diploma — the formal qualification recognised across the industry worldwide.
Available in English, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese. Private 1:1 or 1:2 format. Held at Tasse Coffee Roastery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Contact us at hello@ab-higashikanagawa.pro to confirm a schedule that works for you.
