Our research has shown over and over that all affective scores for the same coffee are highly correlated with each other. In other words, if you know the score of one of the sections—say flavor—you can predict the other scores and the final score with a reasonable level of confidence. Furthermore, for neurological reasons, some cuppers feel more comfortable producing a holistic result than breaking up their perceptions analytically. The above justifies the validity of “hunch final scores,” as long as the following conditions have been met:
(i) the cupper is very familiar with the scoring scale, to the point where they can produce accurate “hunch” scores intuitively (this means you need to familiarize yourself with the new scale first);
(ii) the coffee is thoroughly assessed and the cupping has not been abbreviated; and
(iii) other parties are comfortable with the cupper’s producing an intuitive or holistic score. An alternative for the “hunch” final score is just to use the Overall score in the 9-point affective scale as a proxy for the total impression of quality.