Specialty Coffee 101: Welcome, Current and Future Coffee Enthusiasts

What’s the deal with specialty coffee? What separates it from just, well, coffee? Specialty coffee treats every stage of the journey with care. From how the beans are grown and harvested, to how they are roasted, to how you brew them, every decision matters. With specialty coffee, you are not just drinking caffeine, you are experiencing terroir, nuance, and yes, a little bit of pretension. Continue reading for the essence of what specialty coffee is, and find out if it could be your thing too.

What Exactly Is Specialty Coffee?

Specialty coffee is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but it is actually more than a marketing label. Specialty coffee is graded by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), which means beans that score 80 points or above on a quality scale that looks at each stage of the coffee production, from growth location and condition, to the amount of defects in the green grains of a roast batch. Meaning, specialty coffee isn’t just any brown liquid people hurriedly chug on the way to work. It is objectively better in terms of quality. When enthusiasts consider a cup of specialty coffee, everything from aroma, flavor, aftertaste, balance, and even water quality and how clean the cup is can be considered.

The SCA Definition (a Fancy Way of Saying “High Standards”)

Specialty coffee starts with beans grown under specific conditions. Farmers handpick cherries when they are perfectly ripe. Beas with defects are removed. The beans are processed carefully, often with methods like washed, honey, or natural fermentation. Then professional graders, known as Q graders, taste and score them. If the score is high enough, the beans enter the realm of specialty coffee.

From Bean to Cup: Why Specialty Coffee Hits Harder

When you drink a washed Ethiopian coffee, you might taste bright, fruity, and floral notes. A natural process Brazilian coffee might taste like chocolate and berries. Compare that to a chain store dark roast, which mostly tastes like charcoal and regret. The difference is not subtle. Specialty coffee respects the origin and highlights flavors, while most commercial coffee roasts everything to the point where all you taste is roast, not the bean itself.

Specialty Coffee vs. Chain Coffee vs. Instant Coffee

This is where we draw some sharp lines in the sand.

The Fast-Food of Coffee: Chains

Chains like Starbucks or Costa are fine if what you want is sugar, milk, and a caffeine hit. They are coffee-flavored beverages more than actual coffee. They exist for convenience, not excellence. There is nothing wrong with that, but let us not pretend a venti caramel macchiato is exploring the world of coffee.

The “Emergency Ration” Coffee: Instant Coffee

Instant coffee exists for emergencies. It is the canned beans and powdered milk of the coffee world. If you are hiking in the mountains and want something warm, fine. We’ll let it slide with a condescending sigh. But if you are sitting in your kitchen in a city with multiple coffee shops (not the Dutch one), drinking instant is a choice. And it is the wrong one.

Why Specialty Coffee Feels Like a Different Beverage Altogether

The difference between instant, chain, and specialty is so stark that calling them all “coffee” feels misleading. It is like comparing boxed wine, supermarket merlot, and a carefully aged single-vineyard Burgundy. Same category, wildly different experiences.

The 5 Stages of Coffee Enthusiasm

The Scale of Coffee Enthusiasm (From “Just Give Me Caffeine” to “Third Wave Purist”)

Coffee drinkers exist on a spectrum. To make it clearer, here is where you might fall.

Stage 1: The Desperate Morning Drinker

Coffee is medicine. You wake up, you drink whatever is near, and you move on.

Stage 2: The “Pumpkin Spice Latte” Crowd

You enjoy coffee as a vehicle for sugar, whipped cream, and a seasonal vibe. Pumpkin spice latte, gingerbread latte, unicorn latte, bring it on.

Stage 3: The Dawning Enthusiast Who Buys a Grinder

You have started to notice that fresh ground coffee tastes better. You may even own a French press. This is the gateway drug.

Stage 4: The Specialty Coffee Explorer (Welcome, Friend)

You know your pour-over from your AeroPress. You use a scale, and yes, you time your brew. You visit cafés that roast their own beans, and you might try the odd conversation with the barista, digging for coffee recommendations and free samples. This is where I (Mia) identify. I love a good cup of filter coffee, but also enjoy a flat white.

Stage 5: The Self-Proclaimed Coffee Snob (That’s Henri)

You roll your eyes when someone orders a “Macha Latte.” You have a special tool at home for making sure the grout is equally distributed in the basket before tamping. You travel for coffee, not just for sightseeing. You are probably insufferable at family gatherings, but at least your coffee is excellent. Here you will find a fellow coffee snob in Henri.

What You Will Not Find Here, but Why You Should Stick Around

Here is the thing. If you swear by Nespresso or Starbucks, this blog is probably not your thing. Pod machines and large coffee chains are the fast fashion of coffee. Convenient, consistent, and soulless. In our humble opinion, anyways. Specialty coffee is delicious, surprising, and endlessly fascinating. This blog is not for everyone, and that is ok.

The coffee community is generally a cool crowd, and you will meet fellow coffee lovers and passionate baristas with whom you can bond over a delicate slowdrip of Ethiopian light-roast brew. We will do our best to peer-pressure you into joining the dark side of coffee.

Conclusion: A Toast to the Traveling Snobby Coffee Lover

This blog is for the traveler who looks for coffee before museums, for the one who judges a city by its cafés. We are aware that we can be a bit pretentious with our coffee, and we are definitely not for everyone. If you love pumpkin spice lattes, that is fine. We will, of course, judge you for it, and although we understand that you may still be a nice person, we might not be your cup of… matcha. But if you want to go deeper, if you want to explore the flavors of origin, processing, and brewing, then you are in the right place.

Raise your cup, and let’s get snobby together.