What is Specialty Coffee?

The term "specialty coffee" is one you probably hear a lot these days. But you may be wondering, what exactly does is specialty coffee? Specialty coffee is a high quality coffee that is grown, harvested, and roasted specifically to bring out its unique flavors and characteristics. These coffees typically score 80 points or higher on a 100-point scale that is used by coffee professionals to rate its quality. This is in comparison to commercial coffee, which is just lower-grade, mass-prudced coffee designed for high-volume sales, a long shelf life, often featuring dark roasts to mask defects. You'll typically find commercial coffee in grocery stores, gas stations, and fast food chains.

But what's so special about specialty coffee? Well, it's doesn't just rate higher on a quality level. Yes, specialty coffee is generally more expensive to produce and purchase but that's because it is treated with greater care and attention to detail, grown without chemicals and harvested by hand. The coffee producers of specialty coffee are more transparent about the different stages, making product traceabilty easier. The processing and transportation of the beans are also designed to perserve the quality of beans from farm, to distributor, to roaster and then to the consumer.

As a roaster, we choose to use specialty coffee because we want our customers to enjoy the best cup of coffee. But we also know that by purchasing specialty coffee we are supporting the small farms and wonderful people who dedicate their lives to harvesting, growing, and producing the wonderful beans that make up your cup.

Brewing Guides

We get the question a lot, "how do you brew your coffee?" And while there's no hard and fast rule to brewing coffee, we have some favorite ratios and measurements to get you started! Of course, the best part about coffee is that its versatile, so alter the ratios until you find exaclty how you like it!

Drip Coffee: 1:18 ratio. In a standard 12-cup pot use 3oz of medium ground coffee
Pour Over: 1:16 ratio. 1 oz of medium-coarse grounds to 16oz of water at 195-205 degrees. Use a higher temperature of water for light roasts and a lower one for dark.
Cold Brew: 1:6 ratio for concentrate. 4oz coarse grounds to 24oz water. Steep for 12-18 hours, strain grinds and then dilute with a 1:1 ratio of water or milk to drink.
French Press: 1:16 ratio. 1.5oz coarse grounds to 24oz water.

What's In a Roast?

Ahh, the age old debate: light roasts have more caeffeine the dark roasts. But do they? No. Not really. Lighter roasted beans are more dense and "weigh" more than darker roasted beans so if you are scooping grinds instead of more accurately measuring, then yes in a way your darker roasted coffee cup will have more caeffeine just because the scoop contains more coffee by volume. But, at it's core, dark roast coffee just means the beans are more developed (i.e roasted longer) than light roast. However, it's not just it's color and roast time that makes these roasts different. 

When talking about coffee, especially specialty coffee, the three best ways to describe it is aroma, body, and flavor. Lighter roast coffees typically have a lighter or thin body, floral or fruity aromas, and you'll get more berries, citrus or sour flavors. You'll find them a little more acidic and sharp on your pallette. Darker roast coffees will have a bold or heavy body, smoky and caramelized aromas with nutty and cocoa flavor notes. Darker roasts will be 

Lighter roasts tend to fair better in a pour over brewing method because you can really extract the complex flavors and aromas in a slower and steady way. Some people do like a lighter roast as an espresso, but only if you enjoy it black. Adding milk to lighter roasts doesn't always mesh well with the flavor profiles. Medium roasts you'll typically find as your drip coffee, or even french press or aeropress. Darker roasts are better suited to faster brewing methods like espresso, moka pot or french press as well. 

Of course for any roast, the aromas and flavors will be most dependent on what region of the world it's grown, how it's processed, and how the roaster handles it.

Coffee Processing Methods

Coffee starts the same way much else does in this world—as a tiny seed. Yes, coffee comes from a seed and develops into a coffee cherry grown on trees. When this seed is picked and processed, it yields green coffee, which we roast and turn into your favorite beverage. Coffee can be processed in a few different ways, each delivering a different end result for your cup. The main processing methods are washed, natural, and honey.

The washed, or wet, method involces pulping the cherries, fermenting them in water, and then cleaning and drying them on parchment. This method leads to a crisper and more transparent cup, with higher acidity and a clearer picture of the origin in which it was grown.

In the natural, or dry process, the cherries are dried whole on large patios, with the fruit being removed after drying. This leads to more fruity flavors in the cup, as well as a richer body with lower acidity. This is a common process in regions with limited water access.

The honey process has some elements of both. The cherry is pulped and dried with varying amounts of fruit remaining. The levels of honey go from white to yellow, then red, and lastly black. White honey would have the least amount of mucilage (a sticky outer layer of the coffee seed) lending to a cleaner flavor. Black honey will have the most mucilage left, giving richer flavors with more body.

The journey from farm to cup

Processing is not always done on the farm, or even by the farmer. Many farms will use a singular processing center in the region and then export from there. From the processor, coffee moves to an exporter. It's here that the coffee is packaged and shipped to a coffee importer.

The coffee importer then sells to roasters, (like us!) where we roast to the profile that suits the bean the best and brings out the desired cupping (flavor) notes of the coffee.

There are a lot of moving parts to get the coffee from the farm to your cup. And we like to make sure that the coffee we serve you is both great in taste, and respectful to the farmers and each member that helped it get here.