What is specialty coffee?

Posted on: 2016-11-03 3:03 PM

Many folks, even those who consider themselves coffee fanatics, don’t know why or how their favorite coffee is so good, so much better than the one down the street. Chances are pretty good that if you have ever said, “Wow, that’s the best cup of coffee I ever had!” you’ve just tasted a coffee that is truly rare.
 
In fact, the Specialty Coffee Association of America has an official designation for those coffees. “Specialty Coffee” has to meet a tough set of quality standards that only around 5 percent of the world’s coffees can meet. They are verifiably and noticeably better! So, what’s the difference? The short answer is, it’s all about the green coffee beans that a craft roaster uses.
 
Coffee is the seed of a small fruit called a coffee cherry that grows only in tropical climates. The tasty species of coffee is the Arabica (Coffea Arabica), which only thrives at high elevations in the tropics. The best of these coffees are carefully picked, only at the peak of ripeness and carefully processed to remove the fruit and dry the seeds. Coffee-growing families who take pride in their work often separate the best of their crops from the bulk of their produce. If the growers got it all right, these few micro-lots of great coffees might qualify for the “Specialty” grade and earn the coveted score of 80 or better when scored by professional coffee graders called “Q” graders. These are the coffees every Specialty Coffee roaster wants.
 
Light vs dark roast: which is best?
 
Over the last four decades, the answer to this question has evolved as the specialty coffee industry has thrived. Along the West Coast of the U.S., creative coffee lovers pioneered a dark roasted flavor profile that swept the world. Most famously, Starbucks became a household name with its sourcing of these better beans and its emphasis on very darkly roasted coffees. Many folks came to think that the Green Mermaid’s dark roasted flavor profile was as good as it could get, and I’ll admit, it can be quite enjoyable and they have introduced millions of us to the pleasures of great ‘specialty’ grade coffees.
 
As people all over the world learned what better coffee could taste like, another trend began, represented by small independent roasters. These roasters say, ‘Yes, that’s good, but what will this wonderful naturally processed El Salvador coffee taste like if we don’t go so dark? ‘Let’s lighten it up a bit and see if we can get even more flavor and nuance out of it,’.
 
Good roasters look for the “sweet spot” of every individual coffee they roast: some light, some dark, most medium or medium dark. In the last decade or so, an even newer trend toward lighter and lighter roasts has characterized a third wave of hip young roasters who push the limits of taste to new frontiers.
 
If you’re looking for a new favorite coffee reach out to some of your local roasters and have them make you a few different types roasted differently. You may find a new love of your life.