what is specialty coffee

Going back to specialty coffee world 😊

 Specialty coffee beans are grown in specific regions with ideal environmental conditions and are carefully selected and processed to ensure the highest possible quality. They are often grown using sustainable and environmentally friendly methods. And are typically traded at a premium price to ensure fair trade.

In addition to the quality of the beans, specialty coffee also emphasizes the importance of the roasting and brewing processes. Roasting is done in small batches and is carefully controlled to ensure that the beans are roasted to their optimum flavor profile. Brewing methods are also carefully selected and executed to bring out the best in the beans.

Overall, specialty coffee is about providing a high-quality, enjoyable coffee experience that is both sustainable and ethically sourced. It is a growing trend in the coffee industry and is appreciated by coffee connoisseurs who appreciate the complexity and depth of flavor that can be found in a well-made cup of coffee.

 Most specialty coffee roasters and coffeeshops like café amroz prioritize direct trade relationships with coffee farmers, ensuring that they are paid a fair price for their coffee and have access to resources that can help them improve the quality of their crops. This approach helps to promote sustainable farming practices, as well as economic sustainability for the farmers and their communities.

 Specialty coffee partners also prioritize environmentally sustainable practices in their operations, such as using energy-efficient roasting equipment, composting coffee grounds, and reducing waste in their packaging and shipping processes.

 

Overall, specialty coffee and sustainability go hand in hand, as the focus on quality, ethical sourcing, and community building helps to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly coffee industry.

 

 

Differences between specialty coffee, and commercial or commodity coffee

 

 

We can call the specialty coffee when it receives very good care in all its stages, starting cultivation, and through cherry picking, drying, roasting,  ending with making a balanced cup of coffee.

 

Specialty coffee should cultivate at 800 meter above sea level or more, Because the atmospheric pressure is more suitable, and as the altitude increases the insects that may cause damage to the coffee beans decreases. This is not the case for commodity coffee which can be grown in lower altitudes, so cultivation is easier, faster, and cheaper.

 

The coffee cultivate between Capricorn tropic and cancer tropic, it’s called “coffee belt”.

 

It’s worth noting that there are more than 50 coffee-producing countries, and we will talk about them later, but what you should know here is that Brazil accounts for more than 35% of the world's coffee production.

The coffee trees can produce crops for about 15-20 years. Coffee trees can yield from about 0.9-3.5 kg per year, with 0.7-0.9 kg being the average. It takes 2.3 kg of cherries to produce 0.5 kg of beans.

 

Picking:

We must know that in specialty coffee world, only high quality- Mature cherries are picked and by hand, the ripe beans are picked by farmer, and the immature beans are left on the tree until they are ripe. Unlike commercial coffee, where cherries are often harvested by machines that can strip entire branches of coffee cherries, including both ripe and unripe fruit.

 

Processing and drying:

 

Coffee is traditionally processed in three ways: washed, natural, and honey. There are other processing methods, but for now, we will focus on  the most common three processing methods.

 

 

Natural process

 

The natural process, also known as the dry process, where the cherries are left to dry in the sun in what is so called “drying beds”, after they have been harvested, they dry together in the same time. The cherry here remains as a whole without any pulping (like other processes) although it needs less investment, it still requires certain climatic conditions to ensure the drying of the fruit and seed in proper time.

 

 

Washed process

 

Also called wet process. Unlike the natural process, here we peel the outer layers of the coffee cherry first, and throw it in water channels, this loses it a high level of sugar, knowing that there are many studies indicate that there is a sufficient amount of sugar that coffee cherries gain in their lifecycle.

 

 

 

 

Honey process

 

in this process we pulp the coffee without the removal of the mucilage, subcategories have developed: yellow, red, golden, black, and white honey. This reflects the ability this process has to influence the taste and overall profile of a coffee. It can become a highly scientific process, as the level of mucilage – which influences the sweetness and depth of body of the coffee – is monitored and controlled. Typically, the more mucilage left on the bean, the sweeter the taste.

 

 

We cannot say that there is a better process over the other. The climate is what most prompts farmers to choose the appropriate process that suits the country or the farm.

The humid environment is often treated with washed process, like most of the farms of Indonesia, while dry environments often resort to dry process, as most Ethiopia farms.

 

Roasting:

The roasting is one of the most important parts the coffee life circle, there have been many studies in recent years on the subject of roasting process, as roasting specialty coffee requires great care and continuous monitoring of the temperature of the coffee during the roasting process, so it is necessary to understand the changes that occur in the coffee beans since they are placed in the roaster until they are taken out. Accordingly, specialty coffee roasteries require more quality control equipment and use smaller batches machines to ensure this control. In contrast, commercial coffee is often roasted in larger batches using automated roasting equipment that may not have the same level of precision and control.

 

You need to know that the specialty coffee is usually roasted medium roast or around that level of roasting, this allows the natural flavors and characteristics of the beans to shine through. Still, In less cases we can get satisfactory results for dark roast. It all depends on the specific coffee and the desired flavor profile.

 

On the other hand commodity coffee tends to be darker than specialty coffee as they it can create a bold and intense flavor. This keeps more consistency over large batches, and increase shelf life. Yes! The roasting process creates chemical changes in the beans that can help to preserve the commercial coffee for longer periods of time.  

 

 

Usually, the green coffee traders they sell their beans to more than one roaster, and if you try every single roast you will be notice the difference between their coffees, the reason is every roaster has his own roasting profile, so; you can get some different flavors based on the roast.

 

Grading:

 

Specialty coffee is graded by professional coffee testers who are certified by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), these testers are called Q graders and they use a process called cupping to evaluate coffee, which involves smelling and evaluating the coffee in a controlled environment.

 

The criteria for grading specialty coffee are established by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) which is a trade organization that represents the specialty coffee industry. The SCA provides guidelines and standards for coffee quality, including cupping protocols and scoring criteria by the Q graders.

 

These Criteria include:

·        Altitude

·        Region

·        Botanical variety

·        Processing method

·        Bean (screen) size

·        Bean shape and color

·        Number of defects

·        Permissible defects

·        Bean density

     ·        Cup quality (Aroma, Flavor, Aftertaste, Acidity, Body, Uniformity, Clean cup, Sweetness, Balance). By testing the cup quality through the cupping process, each of these cups quality points receives an individual score out of 10 to reach the overall score of that coffee. This is called the coffee scoring process. And we will quickly explain how essential the coffee scoring is to coffee lovers in the next paragraph 😊

 

 

Now that we have the total score of each coffee summed up, we can classify the coffee quality in numbers. The below table simplifies the above:

 

 

Total Score	Quality	Classification
90-100	Outstanding	Specialty
85-89.99	Excellent	Specialty
80-84.99	Very Good	Specialty
< 80	Below specialty quality	Not specialty

 

 

We at café amroz , use only coffee graded as excellent and above.

 

 

 

   Coffee making:

 

 

In the end, when the coffee reaches the coffee houses, it is the barista’s turn to prepare a balanced cup of coffee within specific criteria. Coffee can be prepared in two main ways: filtering and espresso. Filtered coffee methods are divided into two methods as well, either by using a specialized machine or manual preparation methods, and there are constant efforts to discover and invent New ways to prepare coffee.