Speciality coffees are scored on a 100 point scale. Coffee scores above 80 points defined by the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) are classified as Speciality Grade Coffee. The grading starts with the coffee farmer and the coffee will go through a process called “cupping”, which detects how many defects the bean has. The scoring is as follows:

• 90-100 – Outstanding – Specialty
• 85-99.99 – Excellent – Specialty
• 80-84.99 – Very Good – Specialty
• < 80.0 – Below Specialty Quality – Not Specialty

Coffee Professionals always want to ensure those speciality coffee beans produce the perfect cup. So whether you enjoy your speciality coffee brewed at home or barista prepared in a speciality coffee shop you will know you are drinking the best coffees from around the world. Speciality coffee roasters are always going to be needed to make sure your speciality coffee is produced to the highest quality and that you get the best coffee.

The term “specialty coffee” was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. Knutsen used specialty to describe speciality coffee beans with the best coffee flavour which are produced in special micro-climates. The coffee trade journal is a great source to stay up to date with all the tea and coffee news.

As ardent speciality coffee drinkers, we think so! Speciality coffee has a smooth taste and delicious flavour, while regular ground coffee can be very bitter and of poor quality. Tastes can differ, from coffee supplier, coffee roaster and/or depending on the farmer, the speciality coffee beans and the specific speciality coffee roasters too.

Specialty coffee flavour quality can be subjective and depends on the coffee buyer’s palette or what coffee you are used to. In our opinion, regular coffee is a really sneaky way of saying low-quality. Specialty coffees however are of the highest quality.

Try for yourself our delicious specialty coffee offerings in our specialty coffee shop, add to your shopping cart and the next day you can sit back, relax and enjoy that rich specialty coffee taste.

No, just the spelling. In the United States of America, it is called Specialty Coffee and in the UK we call it Speciality Coffee. Obviously speciality coffee is high-quality coffee however it is spelt.

There is no doubt that whole bean coffee is always the best way to buy coffee however not everyone owns a coffee grinder! There is nothing wrong with buying ground coffee and many of our customers enjoy a perfect brew with pre-ground speciality coffee.

Speciality coffee has a shelf life of 6 months but from the moment it is roasted to the expiry of that 6 month period the flavour and quality would have diminished incredibly.

Think of your whole bean coffee as fresh fruit and vegetables… if you cut an apple it will become vulnerable to the natural chemical processes that will diminish the quality – this is the same for whole bean speciality coffee!

If you are going to start buying whole bean speciality coffee it is really important that you invest in a good quality coffee grinder, we would recommend a burr grinder rather than a coffee grinder that has stainless steel blades.

Whether you decide to buy your speciality coffee ground or whole beans, remember to store it properly. Keep the bag sealed and stored in a dry, dark place. You want to ensure that you do not expose your freshly roasted speciality coffee to excess oxygen and moisture so that you will enjoy your cup of speciality coffee.

There are many ways that you can brew your speciality coffee and each type of brewing method will give you different results. Here is a list of different brewing methods:

• Espresso machine
• Cafetiere
• V60
• Aeropress
• Moka Pot (aka Stove-top)

There is no best way to brew from this list it will all come down to your palate and how you want to make your speciality coffee, but rest assured, the single origin coffee you choose will make for a great coffee.

In the coffee industry, green coffee beans are how the coffee is described before it is roasted.

The coffee production process goes through many stages. From a coffee farmer lovingly tending to and harvesting their crop to coffee professionals purchasing high-quality coffee from them. Green coffee buyers will seek out the best single origin coffees from around the world before being exported to speciality coffee roasters across the globe! Coffee producers work very hard, along with their families to ensure that year after year their crop is sought after.

Prior to the coffee bean being described as green coffee, it actually starts its life as a cherry. When at the right stage the coffee cherry will be harvested and inside is a seed, the seed is what we know as the coffee bean. All cherries have two coffee beans in them apart from a peaberry… this is when only one coffee bean is within the cherry!

The coffee beans are then put through a process prior to being exported. There are a variety of different processes that the green coffee bean can take, check out our blog to find out more.