What is Specialty Coffee?

Specialty coffee has been used as a distinct term since the mid 1970s, although it has only reached widespread recognition since the start of the current millennium. There are many definitions of exactly what specialty coffee is, with the simplest being that it refers to coffee that scores 80 or more points on a 100 point scale.

This definition, although useful, (as it illustrates the importance of the raw or ‘green’ beans) doesn’t fully encompass all of the processes that go into producing specialty coffee. These include the farmer, the ‘terroir’, the production processes, the roasting, and, finally, the making of the final product, be it an espresso, filter, cold brew or milk-based coffee. Any flaw in this chain can easily negate any notion of the product being specialty. An example of this might be a perfectly roasted Gesha coffee that has been carefully produced by the farmer and the roaster that is then under-extracted by an inexperienced barista, and therefore may taste worse than a well made coffee produced using low quality beans.

Specialty coffee, then, is about ensuring that each of the steps along the chain are quality focused, resulting in the end product being exceptional. So, we would start with the best coffee plants, grown in optimum conditions (the coffee plant is very fussy about altitude and climate if it is to produce its best results) by a farmer or farmers who are extremely diligent and focused. It will then need to be processed in a way that extracts the most from the particular beans, then roasted in a way that preserves the distinctive flavours of the specific bean.

This differs greatly from the traditional notion of coffee – espresso, in particular – being a blend of numerous beans roasted in order to maintain a consistent flavour. Specialty coffee is about showcasing the individual flavours of the farm from which the beans originate and the processing methods used – much like the way fine wines showcase the flavours of a particular grower’s grape variety and terroir.

So, what you won’t find in specialty coffee is Robusta beans, dark roasts, or coffees from vast geographical areas. What you will find is a world of diverse flavours and rich complexity that you might not expect to experience from the humble coffee bean.