This is so true. One of my biggest issues with Sweet Maria's, fantastic though they are, is their tendency to post outlandish scores. They have loads of coffees listed over 90 points. Many of those coffees are very good, but not upward of 90. That said, the scores can be useful if you look at them relative to other coffee scores from the same importer. They become pointless if you start comparing them to scores from other importers or to your expectations of what any specific score ought to be.

For what it's worth, I've found Genuine Origin's scores to be pretty fair. I've also come to appreciate vendors like Klatch, who state simply that they carry only high-scoring coffees (I think I read that they don't carry anything beneath 86) without pegging a specific score to each offering.

Anyway, Rao is spot on, as usual.

Great articles here...thanks to all who shared.