10 things I love about Speciality Coffee
Published on Mar 06, 2010
A fascinating piece on coffee and the roasters community written by Stephen Armstrong, Master Roaster at Speakeasy Roasteries and recently published on his blog.
These coffee roasters’ passion and love of the bean is so underrated, they live and breathe with one thing in mind, always trying to source better tasting beans and looking for a better way to produce quality specialty coffee they are proud to put their name on.
1 – The coffee …I love everything about the stuff: the look, the smell, and feel of beans roasted and green; the breadth of flavours and aromas; the “gear” (brewers, grinders, roasters, espressos)…the day I bought a TDS meter for coffee was, I think, the beginning of the end.
2 – Collaboration and information sharing. In my experience, there’s an absence of the cloistering of “secret knowledge” often rampant in other industries.
3 – Excellence supports the artisan: from farmer, to mill worker, to cupper, to roaster, to barista.
4 – Personalities that take what they do very seriously, but not themselves.
5 – Anyone with the inclination can be an expert…but every coffee expert I’ve met readily admits that they ”have so much more to learn.”
6 – Commitment to quality, ethical sourcing, and sustainability. Whether or not there’s agreement about the “how,” there is a diversity of approaches with more-or-less the same ends: Rainforest Alliance, Direct Trade, Cup of Excellence, Smithsonian Bird Friendly, FLO-Cert Fair Trade, national & international Organic standards, 4C association.
7 – An almost collective rejection of over-roasting as a way of masking bean defects; letting coffee origins stand on the merits of their quality.
8 – Specialty coffee is a “culture”…a slow-food approach of sitting down with people and making connections over a cup of the world’s most complexly glorious beverage. This ain’t no “double-double to go.”
9 – Education of the reseller and consumer thanks to institutions like SCAA and SCAE, “the world’s largest coffee trade association with members representing more than 40 countries and every segment of the specialty coffee industry,” with a commitment to creating opportunities for success in specialty coffee.
10 – Great coffee doesn’t just happen by accident – it’s with the energies of people personally invested in improving quality through better growing & processing practices; strict roasting and cupping protocols, renewed attention to “one-cup-at-a-time” brewing, and a better understanding of coffee science.
Members of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe