The term "specialty coffee" has existed for 40 years. It's well-established, but it needs a contemporary classification. What was initially a technical, purely sensory analysis has changed. Today, fair trade relations and more ecological production play an increasingly important role – but expectations are too high. Because in the end, it's the actors who do something: a term does nothing.
What exactly is specialty coffee?
To define what something is, it sometimes helps to say what it isn't. In the case of defining specialty coffee, this is easier. Specialty coffees, for example, are not coffee specialties—the kind often associated with extravagantly decorated ice cream sundaes or dessert-like coffees. Specialty coffee refers exclusively to the product, coffee.
Specialty coffee is, first and foremost, a quality attribute that relates to the sensory quality and grade of the green coffee. Trained Q-Arabica graders undergo a challenging sensory-practical examination conducted by the Coffee Quality Institute . Nadja Schwarz, Michel Indelicato, Benjamin Hohlmann, David Wistorf, and Philipp Schallberger, members of our team, have completed the Q-Grader training. Starting in October 2025, a new evaluation method, the Coffee Value Assessment, will be available, which we discuss in detail here .
Determining sensory quality by cupping
When three Q-Arabica graders evaluate a coffee according to the SCA's specified cupping protocol, the average score is considered the final grading of a coffee.
Before tasting, we let the coffee brew for four minutes and then break through the coffee crust
Coffees are rated on a scale of 0-100. The rating system was developed by the SCA in 1984 and was the first 100-point system for coffee . It has undergone several visual revisions since then, but the categories examined have barely changed. Today, the form is the global standard for sensory evaluation of coffee.
The quality and intensity of aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, and the balance of the various attributes are examined. It is also checked whether the coffee in question is free of sensory defects . Phenolic-medicinal, peaty, or leathery notes are frequently encountered, depending on the quality and processing conditions.
An old and a new definition of specialty coffee
The pure focus on sensory quality was particularly decisive in the early days of differentiation in the coffee market. The term itself originated with Erna Knutsen , now an icon of the coffee industry, who mentioned "specialty coffee" in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal in 1974. Eight years later, the SCAA, the Specialty Coffee Association of America, was founded. The early SCAA focused on high sensory quality and—what is now a minimum standard—designation of origin.
According to the Coffee Guide , awareness of environmental issues grew in the 1970s , prompting programs and certifications focused on organic coffee production. In the early 2000s, quality became even more important, coupled with barista training, transparency in supply chains, and the boom in newly founded coffee roasters. What is now summarized as the "third coffee wave" referred to the even stricter focus on ever-increasing coffee quality. However, according to the Coffee Guide, this is a misconception because:
Third-wave coffee is an experience, and specialty coffee is the product consumed. (p. 142)
A new definition of specialty coffee?
Today, it's significantly more difficult to provide a universally valid definition of specialty coffee. The demands on what specialty coffee should be and what it should fulfill are becoming ever higher. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that so often a distinction is made between "mass coffee" and "specialty coffee," with the former being conflated not only with inferior quality but also with unfair trade practices. The alternative to this, it sometimes seems, would be specialty coffee, which would then take advantage of all the missed opportunities in mass coffee to improve.
According to the graphic from the Coffee Guide - The Fourth Edition (2021), higher quality also increases the likelihood of sustainably produced coffee. "Specialized" coffee, according to this definition, would only account for more than 6% of the global coffee supply.
As is so often the case, everything is neither black nor white. There are gray areas in the coffee industry, too. Many "mass-produced" coffees may have been produced with a high degree of ecological awareness. And the opposite is also true: many specialty coffees, i.e., coffees with a high degree of flavor differentiation, may be delicious, but were produced significantly less ecologically. Or as Johanna Jacobi said in a podcast with me :
There are some things you can't taste in coffee. For example, child labor or glyphosate.
How could we enjoy something whose social and ecological conditions we know do not correspond to our expectations? The question of definition has increasingly become a discussion of values .
Social and ecological dimensions are now indispensable in any discussion about coffee quality. Most roasters would probably tend to believe that coffee must be convincing not only from a sensory perspective, but also from a social and environmental perspective.
An example definition
In this respect, the new concept of specialty really needs to be given a lot more meaning, and sustainability will be part of it. But sustainability is a big word and extremely vague . So perhaps it helps to separate things – as in this fictitious example:
- We rate Coffee X with 84 points, making it a specialty coffee according to the SCA rating scale. It has an intense blackberry aroma, delicate acidity, a soft body, and a long aftertaste.
- We source our coffee X from a 200-member, organic and Fairtrade-certified cooperative. The cooperative trains producers in their own organic fertilizer production, finances harvests with loans and low interest rates, and provides modern education for the children and further training outside the coffee sector for the parents.
In this example, sensory quality is clearly separated from the commitment to sustainable coffee production and sustainable business management.
Do not blend - do not mix
It's of little use to exaggerate the term "specialty" to the point where it becomes increasingly confusing. As a roaster, we have decided to only purchase specialty coffees with scores above 80 points because we have above-average sensory expectations for coffee.
At our partners at 18 Conejo in Honduras, the coffee is sorted by hand. The good ones go to the pot, the bad ones to the crock – nothing is mixed.
At the same time, we aim to immerse ourselves in each coffee chain, understand it, and partner with the producers . This allows us to jointly tackle larger, long-term projects that focus on and improve the social, economic, and ecological dimensions. Mixing these two interpretations of the term "specialty"—sensory perception and sustainability—would create more confusion than understanding.
Specialty coffee also for roasted coffee?
Essentially, coffee evaluation only applies to green coffee. Precise tasting allows producers to receive differentiated feedback so they can improve their post-harvest processes.
Of course, the tasting method can also be applied to coffee roasted by roasters. However, it should be noted that these coffees are usually roasted too darkly for a clear result to be obtained. Dark roasting generally causes coffee to lose complexity and become overpowered by roasted notes.
Juan Boillat from the roasting team roasts according to individual roasting profiles for each coffee
Many roasters avoid roasting more complex specialty coffees, perhaps because they are targeting a different market. The taste of specialty coffees can vary marginally to drastically from average coffee . When roasters do roast these coffees, many tend to roast darker because the more complex, floral, and fruity notes are too unfamiliar. The increased acidity in these coffees is also rather unusual and motivates many roasters to roast darker coffees. If the subtle differences can be smoothed out, however, it would also be economically viable to roast more "normal" coffee.
Specialty coffee in preparation
Even preparing specialty coffee can sometimes be a bit challenging. Yes, there are more and more specialty coffee capsules available, but the preparation process and understanding of what happens during the process are left out. But that's precisely what excites many people when they approach a specialty product.
The cornerstones of a good espresso are in the preparation:
- the degree of grinding ,
- the ratio between dosage and extracted coffee
- the puck preparation to avoid channeling
- and the tamping
Lighter roasts, in particular, which often require a longer extraction time for a balanced cup due to their lower solubility, require different recipes than darker roasted coffees. Lighter roasted coffees can generally be ground much finer.
Filter coffee is a bit more forgiving, which mainly depends on the length of the extraction. Depending on the system, this can range from a minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds ( Aeropress ) to 5 minutes (Chemex). Specialty roasters often focus on very distinctive coffees with prominent aromas, which are easy to extract. However, extracting the full balance requires more attention to detail .
Conclusion
The definition of what constitutes specialty coffee was set in stone with the first version of the SCA's cupping form in 1984. This tasting exclusively analyzed the sensory components of the coffee.
40 years later, 40 years more climate change, 40 years more intensification of precarious working conditions and 40 years of intensive agriculture, we are now at a different point.
It's understandable that a concept that creates differentiation will eventually become even more charged with expectations. However, the term itself won't solve anything, only the players who use the term "specialty coffee." Therefore, we advocate a clear separation between sensory analysis and the design of the supply chain.
When specialty coffee is marketed as a solution to all problems, it is not only a fraud on consumers, but also on the concept itself, which was never intended to be expanded.
* More about coffee and climate change in this video
** More on the greenhouse effect in this blog
