SCA Roasting Professional is the top level of the SCA's three-level roasting course, covering custom roast profiles, production roasting and quality control. It requires the Intermediate roasting certificate, runs about 21 hours of learning time, and is priced by the trainer. This guide explains the credential, the pathway it feeds, assessment and fee facts, and includes a worked weight-loss exercise.
What the Professional course covers
Professional is the third level of SCA’s Roasting module, focused on profile design, production and quality control.
Passing the course assessments earns an individual certificate that contributes toward the Roastery Diploma. You need the Intermediate Certificate in CSP Roasting before this Professional course.
Sources: Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing; SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels — Diploma pathway page: course list, hours and prerequisites; Education - Diplomas — Specialty Coffee Association — How to earn your SCA Diploma: assessments
Where Professional roasting fits in the Roastery Diploma
Roasting Professional contributes to the Roastery Diploma, which combines roasting and supporting course certificates.
If you are building toward the diploma, review the complete pathway and your existing certificates. The Professional Sensory Skills component has its own Intermediate prerequisite.
Sources: SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels — Diploma pathway page: course list, hours and prerequisites; Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing
What the Professional level covers
The published outcomes are to create custom roast profiles, manage production roasting and apply quality control.
Use the three course outcomes to organize your preparation: custom profile design, production roasting and quality control. For each one, identify a practical task you want to improve and the evidence you would use to judge the result.
The progression from the lower levels makes the scope clear. Foundation introduces roasting stages, basic profiles and roaster safety. Intermediate works on roast development and consistency: adjusting profiles, matching roast levels and understanding heat transfer. Professional shifts the demand from executing and controlling a roast to designing and managing roasts across production.
Sources: Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing; SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels — Diploma pathway page: course list, hours and prerequisites
Prerequisite, course hours and delivery
The Professional roasting course requires the Intermediate Certificate in CSP Roasting, is published at 21 hours of learning time, and is delivered in person or as a combination of in-person and distance learning.
The current diploma portal requires the Intermediate Certificate in CSP Roasting. Confirm your certificate and enrollment arrangements with an Authorized SCA Trainer (AST).
The 21 hours is course learning time. Professional delivery is in person or combines in-person and distance learning; confirm the practical schedule before arranging travel.
Sources: SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels — Diploma pathway page: course list, hours and prerequisites; Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing
Confirm assessment arrangements and the complete price
SCA describes practical and written assessments for course certificates. Confirm your Professional course details and price with the trainer.
The current pages reviewed here do not give this module’s task count, timings, passing scores or retake rules. Ask the trainer for those details before booking.
Pricing also differs from fixed exam systems. The trainer sets the course price, not the SCA. That price bundles the trainer's tuition, materials and delivery with an SCA course enrollment fee, which varies by pricing group and may or may not be covered by the trainer. Ask for an itemized quote rather than relying on any single figure you find online.
Sources: Education - Diplomas — Specialty Coffee Association — How to earn your SCA Diploma: assessments; Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing
Prepare through production habits: what roasters record
The Professional outcomes are record-heavy, so practicing what a roast log should contain is directly relevant preparation.
Custom profiles, production management and quality control all depend on consistent measurement. An SCA Expo lecture on using coffee data for quality and consistency lists the parameters roasters track across the process:
One caveat applies: the lecture dates from 2018 and describes data practice, not the current assessment protocol. Treat it as background on what production roasting involves, not as a syllabus extract.
A single number such as weight loss cannot establish quality by itself, which is why roasters pair it with color, moisture and cupping results. The exercise below makes that point concrete.
- Before the roast: green weight and blending ratios
- During the roast: temperature curve, rate of rise, gas settings, pressures, times and development time
- After the roast: color, moisture, weight loss and cupping scores, plus brewing parameters
- Context: batch order in the day, weather and season
Practice exercise: weight loss across batches
Calculate each batch separately, then check the combined production total.
This exercise uses fictional production data for one roastery and one green coffee, with the weight-loss formula defined explicitly. Work the calculation before revealing the answer.
Practice exercise
A roastery roasts the same green coffee in two batches on the same day. Batch A is charged with 12.0 kg of green coffee and drops 10.2 kg of roasted coffee. Batch B is charged with 15.0 kg and drops 12.75 kg. Using weight-loss percentage = (green weight − roasted weight) ÷ green weight × 100, calculate the weight loss for each batch and for the day's combined output. Then state one thing these figures can tell you and one thing they cannot.
Reveal answer
Batch A: (12.0 − 10.2) ÷ 12.0 × 100 = 15%. Batch B: (15.0 − 12.75) ÷ 15.0 × 100 = 15%. Combined: 27.0 kg green in, 22.95 kg roasted out, so 4.05 kg lost and again 15%.
Batch B loses 2.25 kg in absolute terms against 1.8 kg for Batch A, but the proportional loss is identical, so a larger kilogram figure does not mean a stronger roast. Equally, matching percentages do not prove the two profiles or the two cups matched: weight loss is one measurement among many, alongside post-roast color, moisture and cupping results. Before changing machine settings on the strength of mass loss alone, review the full roast record, and keep per-batch identifiers rather than only the daily aggregate so causes stay traceable. The 15% results are fictional exercise values, not recommended roast targets.
Does the Professional level fit your experience?
Use the three topics to identify a practice task and a question for your trainer.
These are preparation suggestions. Keep the Intermediate prerequisite in view when discussing your background and arrange supervised practice for unfamiliar equipment or techniques.
- Custom profiles: describe the goal of a trainer-supplied profile and the measurements used to evaluate it.
- Production: retain batch identifiers and calculate both individual and combined records, as in the exercise.
- Quality control: compare recorded process data with color, moisture and cupping observations without treating one number as the verdict.
- Confirm practical access, assessment terms, schedule and the complete price.
Sources: Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association — Roasting course cards (Foundation/Intermediate/Professional) and course pricing; SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels — Diploma pathway page: course list, hours and prerequisites
Sources
Fact check:
- Education - Courses — Specialty Coffee Association
- SCA Roastery Diploma: current required courses and levels
- Education - Diplomas — Specialty Coffee Association
- #51: Using Your Coffee Data as Business Intelligence to Deliver Quality, Consistency, and Control
- Coffee Value Assessment — Specialty Coffee Association