Simply put, speciality coffee is the highest quality coffee available. But what makes it so special and what is the difference between speciality coffee and commercial/commodity-grade coffee?
COMMERCIAL COFFEE
Commercial coffee is the stuff you get in chain coffee shops (you know the ones), some offices, hotels, restaurants and cafes. The beans have a higher caffeine content than beans from arabica plants.
Commercial coffee typically comes from the Robusta coffee plant. It’s grown at low altitudes and is resistant to pests and disease. Ironically, it’s the more bitter flavour of the higher caffeine bean that pests detest.
Commercial coffee has the more traditional “strong” and bitter flavours associated with it. What it lacks in taste is made up by quantity and informality, often roasted much darker to mask defects in the beans.
SPECIALITY COFFEE
Speciality coffee is coffee that meets standards of excellence from farm to cup. The description from the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) helps us better define speciality coffee:
“Speciality coffee is a coffee or coffee experience recognised for its distinctive attributes, and because of those attributes, has significant extra value in the marketplace.”
Speciality coffee has many distinctive attributes such as the origin, producers, quality of cherries, process, and roasting.
GRADING SPECIALITY COFFEE
Q graders (think sommeliers for coffee) get certified after gaining a serious amount of knowledge and training. They taste, assess and score each cup according to strict criteria set out by the SCA. Coffees with a score of 80 and above are considered speciality while 90 and above is considered outstanding!
THE JOURNEY FROM FARM TO CUP
The journey of course starts with the farmer. It’s likely that these coffee producers and their families have spent generations perfecting their approach to farming, striving for the highest quality possible.
Speciality coffee tends to grow in select altitudes and climates and the plants are nursed for years before the first harvest. It’s all about quality over quantity. Only defect-free and perfectly ripe coffee cherries will be selected.
Next up is the green coffee buyer. Their job is to identify the best quality coffee which is done by cupping. A standardised process of tasting and assessing the quality of the coffee. Once selected they will be available to buyers in the destination country.
Once the coffee has been delivered in sacks, the coffee roaster has the job of turning green beans into perfectly roasted beans. Coffee roasting is an art that requires a high degree of knowledge and experience. Coffee is closely monitored during the roasting process and scientific principles of heat transfer, thermodynamics and coffee chemistry must be applied to ensure the highest standard of quality and flavour come through in the final roasted bean.
If you’re in a coffee shop, a barista will be happy to prepare the beans using a variety of different methods. Often different beans and roast profiles will lend themselves to specific brewing methods to best showcase their unique flavour.
Finally, you, the consumer, have taken the time to seek out the best speciality coffee you can buy to enjoy at home. By choosing speciality coffee, you can show a commitment to a higher standard of quality of taste and flavour but also a commitment to a higher standard of living for every person who contributed along the way.
