It is always an amazing experience to hold a conversation with people who are passionate about coffee beans. We get to learn new things from them.

In the recent years, we have left behind the two waves of coffee and entered into the 3rd wave of coffee culture, all we know that we are served with a fancy cup of latte and we do not know the details of the work that goes in the background for a perfect coffee cup.

In this article, let me make you all aware of the hard work that goes behind a perfect coffee that comes to your table. Following are some of the facts that I have gathered related to specialty coffee

Specialty Not Because Of Fancy Machines or Imports

Specialty Coffee is not called 'Specialty Coffee' simply because a fancy machine is used to brew it or because it is imported. It is actually categorized as a premium quality coffee because of the standard of quality of coffee beans. The quality of coffee beans is evaluated based on the score-sheet of Specialty Coffee Association of America SCAA

This scoresheet is devised considering the five things into account, i.e. the Aroma, Flavour, body, Aftertaste and balance of the coffee. The coffee beans are evaluated on these bases. Coffee beans with 80 and above points are categorized as specialty coffee.

There is one more way to evaluate the coffee and that is to break the raw green coffee bean to identify if it has any defect. There are two kinds of defects in the coffee beans, i.e. primary defects and Secondary defects. If the coffee bean is identified with a primary defect it does not remain in the category of specialty coffee anymore.

Every Country Has a Different Coffee Culture

Every country has its own culture and serving the coffee. There is nothing right or wrong. It is based on the preferences of people, how they like to indulge in the coffee drink

Coffee culture is not just the coffee per se. It is how people prefer to have it. It is the culture to add different ingredients to your drink like sugar, butter, milk, margarine to get the local flavor. The cup of coffee is good provided that it is made in a hygienic process with good quality coffee beans. 

Not Every Passionate Coffee Lover is a Regular Drinker

People who passionately learn about coffee are not necessarily regular drinkers. They are coffee tasters who only want to taste different flavors and types of coffee. People who drink coffee are different. Most of them do not care about the type of the coffee provided that they get their regular caffeine fix. On the contrary, coffee tasters are keener to know the details about their coffee. Usually they take their coffee without milk and sugar to identify the original quality of the coffee.

Production of Supreme Quality Coffee Beans Is a Serious Business

Coffee production is a serious business. Even though, the process has become easier due to good machines. It is not only related to science, raw coffee beans roasting are an art which needs good intuition and gut feels.

Science plays its role in coffee production but human intervention is also required when it comes to figuring out the time to drop coffee beans in the roasting drum with their monitoring skills to identify the perfect color for roasted coffee bean.

Quality Of Coffee Can Be Corrected If Something Goes Wrong In The Roasting Process

At times Roasting Process does not give the desired results, however; there is nothing to worry about as we can make the quality better in the post bled process or on-stage level. We roast the blends of coffee individually and when it's done we blend them. In this way the flavor of the coffee does not stay off. When you are done with roasting process you can play with the flavor of the coffee when you brew it. If you prefer a bitter tasting coffee you can get a fine blend and brew it for a longer time.

Origins Play An Important Role In Distinctive Flavors Of The Coffee

Coffee beans from different origins have different taste, but it requires special attention of the drinker to identify the individual notes of these coffee beans. For instance, Ethiopian coffee contains lots of floral aroma or some of them taste fruity. On the other hand, Indonesian coffee is very earthy and spicy. Customers often find it hard to identify their favorite coffee flavor and they indulge in the specialty coffee so it is the duty of the expert to guide them about their preferred flavor.

Now that you all know few basics about specialty coffee you can put these facts into practice while choosing your specialty coffee cup at a cafe or at your home.