Coffee school / In the cup
What does “specialty” actually mean?
80 points and up on a 100-point scale — and a chain you can follow back to the farm.
“Specialty” is not a marketing word, it is a scoring system. Trained tasters (Q graders) cup the coffee to a standard protocol and score aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance and cleanliness, among other attributes, on a 100-point scale.
The line is 80 points. From 80 up, specialty; below it, commercial. Above 85 is genuinely good, and above 90 is rare.
What the score does not tell you: whether you will like it. An 87-point Ethiopian and an 86-point Brazilian are two completely different experiences. The score measures the absence of defects and the complexity, not your taste.
The other half: traceability. With a specialty coffee you can know which farm or cooperative it came from, which harvest, and how it was processed. That is not only romance: if something is particularly good, it can be found again.
With us: every one of our lots is graded excellent, 100% arabica, and every bag carries the origin, the processing and the roast date.
Taste it
