Let's talk about Speciality Coffee
- basics
Hello coffee lover. Happy New Year. Hope your resolutions include drinking coffee.
What is Speciality Coffee?
Up until recently, I thought speciality coffee is just pricey coffee. I can't take the complete blame for dumbness because cafés come up with fancy names for items and charge you more for it.
In the workshop, which I mentioned in my previous posts, I actually came to know that coffee is graded. And a score above 80 makes it a "speciality" coffee.
Yes, it's like attending boards and getting an A grade, but for coffee – the beans, the farmers who grew it, the roaster who roasted it and everyone involved.
Why should we care about "Speciality" coffee?
If you, like me, hate instant coffee, then you found your reason to care.
Instant coffee is mass produced. The quality of the bean is not checked. Companies buy lower quality beans in bulk for cheap, brew it in large amounts, flash freeze it, and then pack them into bottles and sell.
Well, there is nothing wrong in drinking this and there sure is an audience for it. If you are one of them {{ first name }}, don't worry we can still be friends. 😉
When it comes to speciality coffee, it is more carefully produced. A global organization called SCA (Speciality Coffee Association) sets standards for specialty coffee at every stage of the coffee production, including allowable defects in green beans, water standards, and brew strength. The SCA also sets clear standards on the coffee grading process.
A part of the SCA coffee assessment.
When the coffee gets above 80 on its 100-point grading scale, it is classified as speciality coffee.
They publish all the research and standards on their website - https://sca.coffee/value-assessment. Check the Knowledge section in the header.
How can you try Speciality coffee?
If you are a home brewer, you might already have a bag of speciality coffee beans.
If you are someone who drinks instant coffee like Bru, Nescafe, Davidoff, etc, I highly recommend you go to a nearby café and try a pour over made from nice quality beans. Have a word with the barista on which beans they are and why their recipe.
You can easily compare the taste if you keep them side by side and do a taste test. We have talked about developing the taste for coffee in a post earlier.
Later, you can start brewing coffee at home with a french press and try out different coffee roasters that make speciality coffee. There are many in India.
That’s all I have. Have a caffeinated weekend.
See you.
Keep on brewing!