Specialty coffee is a philosophy applied toward the pursuit and process of discovering the truest iteration of the highest quality and exotic coffee cultivars. Specialty coffee is a perception towards coffee. Coffee as we know it is the seed of a tropical fruit bearing tree, grown and cultivated around the world, within the coffee growing belt. There are dozens of different coffee varieties, grown for different purposes. They all have unique cup quality characteristics.
Natural
Specialty coffee varieties tend to have the naturally occurring potential for sweet, fruity and floral characteristics. If they are cultivated well and processed with precision, these varieties have the potential to taste nothing like the generic coffee flavor most people are accustomed to. Specialty coffee growers are continually pursuing better farming practices and innovating processing methods, all aimed at producing coffee with the greatest potential for high grade cup qualities.
Unique
These unique characteristics are what specialty coffee roasters and consumers are seeking to discover and reveal through the process of roasting and brewing. To truly reveal the inherent quality and characteristics of a particular coffee variety, grown and processed by a particular farmer or cooperative, a roaster must discover the most appropriate balance between heat application, airflow and time for that specific iteration of a particular variety. When pursuing the most ideal roast for a coffee one is truly engrossed within the process of discovery and dependent on trial and error. One learns how certain varieties with specific processing methods generally react in the roasting environment, but discovering the ideal roast profile for a new coffee is different every time and is founded upon experimentation.
Evaluated
This process of discovery doesn’t stop in the roasting machine. After a coffee has been roasted with a particular plan and reacts according to the coffee’s nature, it is tested by putting the coffee through a process known as cupping. During a coffee cupping session, the coffee in question is ground to a particular fineness, placed into a small bowl, and has water with a temperature above 200 degrees Fahrenheit, poured directly into it, with a 1:16 ratio between coffee and water. After four minutes of brewing, the bubbles and grounds that rose to the top of the bowl are scraped off with spoons. After a few more minutes of cooling, the coffee is then tasted and evaluated. While cupping a particular coffee, one is taking note of any negative attributes that are noticeable and pinpointing particular qualities and characteristics. The person responsible for roasting the coffee takes his discoveries from the cupping process and uses them to make adjustments on the next roast.
Unfolding
After each roast of a particular coffee, the goal is to find fewer negative attributes, along with more positive qualities and characteristics. At a certain point a coffee can be considered optimized, or ‘dialed in’. The goal is to reach this point of ‘dialing in’ a coffee in as few of roasts as possible, and then to roast it exactly the same way until the coffee is sold out. The truth is, if you’re buying specialty coffee from a roasting company that is truly dedicated to this discovery process, then you’re likely purchasing coffee somewhere along the path to the perfect roast iteration. The discovery process is completed through dialing in the brewing phase of the coffee. This is the least stressful and most enjoyable part of the process - glory to God.
- Nicholas