Best coffee brands: The Q grading system has long been the standard. That’s about to change.

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Even non–wine drinkers are familiar with the scenes of elevated wine tasting: the decanting of a tannic red, the swirling of the glass by the stem, the pinky-up nosing of bouquets and aromas, and ultimately the discerning and deliberate sipping. But many more of us are regular coffee drinkers than regular wine drinkers ( around 66 percent versus an optimistic 40 percent ), yet the rituals of coffee connoisseurship are far less known. At the pinnacle of coffee sensory evaluation is the cupping session. An affair replete with a professional accoutrement of scales, grinders, kettles, and timers, it involves experts brewing identical cups from different coffee bean