Define "Specialty"
The term "Specialty" is used everday in our industry to describe many different things.
What does it really mean?
What does it mean to you?
What does it really mean?
What does it mean to you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Peter Tam on
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That is great. I can see that Don Holly is serous about it, and would keep the concept of "specialty coffee" clean and clear.
But, the things are more complicated.
Just few of them.
1. "issue of time-maintaining a 3 to 7 day window is optimum"
It is for "your" oily beans, not our normal Italian roasted beans.
2. "The important job for SCAA is to quantify this aspect of quality into a good technical standard. This won't be an easy task" about aroma
It may be impossible, not only difficult. Salty or not, who can judge it?
3. "I believe that it takes at least 100 hours, or the preparation of at least 1,000 shots of espresso, under demanding tutelage, before anyone should consider themselves anything more than a trainee-barista."
It may not be enough as you know about the understanding about espresso brewing, but different for us, which may be not far from you but you never know.
4. "There are some great stories and marvelous promotions out there in our industry from people claiming that they have the "best" coffee, and that they work hard to produce specialty coffee. It does take a lot of work to produce specialty, and it is not always tangibly clear (especially to the managing accountants and financial investors) that the customers can tell the difference. There is sometimes a tendency to rely more upon telling a good story and creating a good promotion than putting out all of the effort that is required to offer specialty coffee consistently. But, it is my opinion that those who will succeed in the long term, building a loyal clientele and generating a healthy and sustainable return on investment for their company, are going to be the ones who are spending more attention and resources on training and quality control than they are on marketing. Check the financial statements. If expenditures on advertising and marketing are greater than on training and quality control, what is being sold? I would suggest that it is probably not specialty coffee."
Yes, if you ask the customers, they won't tell the truth, but if you check their payment, that is the sales statistic datas, you can surely learn a lot. That is the Kaffa parameter for sales analysis.
It is like legal rules that, they can define the rules but not specify who and others; what to do and not to do.
(this is not any cost, but my sleeping time)
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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Thanks, J. I found the Don Holly Post to be a good read that really captures the point of this discussion. The distinctiveness part is key to me - "a coffee that has no defects and has a distinctive character in the cup." or "It is not only that the coffee doesn't taste bad; to be considered specialty it must be notably good."
This seems like a good working definition for me.
Peter, two items I question in your reply:
""issue of time-maintaining a 3 to 7 day window is optimum" It is for "your" oily beans, not our normal Italian roasted beans."
Whose beans do you refer to? If you took samples of beans from a few different independent coffee shops in the US, you would find roasts ranging from light to charcoal. "Charbucks" is not a representative sample.
Beyond that, are you suggesting that a lighter "normal" roast might have a longer optimum window or shorter? I've found that the flavors found in lighter roasts tend to go wrong more quickly, and that the roast-flavor-dominated coffees change less with time.
"Yes, if you ask the customers, they won't tell the truth, but if you check their payment, that is the sales statistic datas, you can surely learn a lot. That is the Kaffa parameter for sales analysis."
Sales numbers tell you what is popular. I see no relationship between popularity and quality. Above all, something must be easy to appreciate in order to be popular (I call this the Budweiser parameter). No flaws, nothing objectionable, not bad but nothing special.
How popular is a great Ethiopian coffee that bursts with wild and distinctive fruit flavors? For some of those that value distinctive character in their coffee, this is a great coffee. It is a great example of "distinctive character". However, those that are just looking for a good easy cup of coffee will buy something else. I believe that most coffee consumers are just looking for a good likable cup of coffee. Your sales data will show you that.
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Do you know what Kaffa parameter is? And how it works?
If you do not believe that the customers are not good enough to choose what is good, what a cafe is working for? It is satisfaction, nothing else.
Whatever they do, whatever they sell, the market will decide who can be left in the market. You experienced the marketing for that long history, you should know better than us. What Don Holly said is right, that what the clients choose is the best.
Please, think about it carefully. For example, many people went to starbucks not because they like it, but they do not know anything better exist, or can be found around them. The Kaffa parameter shows that the customers do not like the espresso of starbucks. It does make sense. The problem is not that the customers are stupid, but show your better products to them and let them have chance to get it. That is the point.
Oily beans are oily beans, whoever made it.
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Hi Peter,
You asked: "Do you know what Kaffa parameter is? And how it works?"
No.
Does it have any bearing on the discussion of what sort of coffee should be defined as specialty? Not best selling, marketable, or most popular, but specialty? That which the client chooses is not the best, it is only the most popular.
Personally, I think there is a place in the market for excellent, highly distinctive coffees. Those coffees may not have mass-market appeal. This does not mean they have no value. I think this is a great use of the definition "specialty".
Do you want a coffee with broad appeal? Maybe "premium coffee" is what you are looking for. As Don said: "The premium grade also has no primary defects, but does not necessarily evidence distinctive character." This sounds to me like a best-seller.
Also, I asked: "...are you suggesting that a lighter "normal" roast might have a longer optimum window or shorter?? (than the oily roast)" What DO you think?
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Hi Brady,
I personally do not think that it is good to make "specialty" to the few people, and "premium" to the mass. Whatever they difine it at the beginning, it seems that people would change it, or "improve" it. But, in some of the descriptions, I feel that it might be "killed", not improved.
The customers should be educated by offering them good coffee, not talking. If only they can try the better one, they for sure will like it. That is what we experienced.
About the roasting and "longer optimum window or shorter", the problem is the oil on the surface of the beans. In room temperature, the oil will get rancid and not be used. For this reason, it cannot be kept for longer time. But, most (or normal) espresso blends are not roasted to oily, and therefore, they have no such a problem.
Did I say it clear, or not?
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Peter,
OK, I'm starting to understand your point a little more. I do still disagree though.
I've observed two markets for good coffee, your observations may be different:
"The many" - the customer that wants a delicious but relatively familiar cup. In the US, a clean, balanced, approachable, low to moderate acidity, nothing objectionable or assertive. Something that just tastes like coffee.
"The few" - the coffee enthusiast. Can still appreciate a good simple cup, but really wants something more exciting. Wants to experience the full range of possibilities, and enjoys exploring the world of coffee. Wild flavors, acidity, earthiness, funk - these are all welcome as long as the result is a cup that is enjoyable for them.
Both customers should appreciate an excellent cup of whatever they are looking for.
I'm not suggesting that the coffees that he described as "specialty coffee" are any better than the "premium", or even that there aren't many well-accepted specialty coffees. Many coffees will be appealing to both groups. I'm not even suggesting that the terms are really all that useful. It does seem like maybe we ought to have a way to distinguish coffees that are really good from the coffees that are both really good and interesting.
You said: "The customers should be educated by offering them good coffee, not talking. If only they can try the better one, they for sure will like it. That is what we experienced."
Again, I disagree, based on the idea of "better". We offer several interesting, fresh, excellently roasted, properly brewed specialty coffee at our shop. Some, like our Guatemala Antiugua La Cieba or Papua New Guinea Purosa, have been almost universally well received. Others, like the Rwanda Bufcafe, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Sulawesi, etc, were absolutely loved by some, sent back by others. I would never suggest that the Guat. or Papua were superior coffees. They were simply more approachable for my customer.
Maybe "better" is not always best.
Again, I've found the distinctive flavors of the more lightly-roasted coffees we sell to be FAR more perishable than the roast-dominated flavors of the darker roasts. Both are clearly best for only a few days to a week. The good flavors of these coffees are gone long before the bad flavors of rancid oils start to show up.
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Hi Brady,
I am not sure if I can understand you well or not, but I try.
"It does seem like maybe we ought to have a way to distinguish coffees that are really good from the coffees that are both really good and interesting."
For coffee professionals, they should be curious to all different things and maybe they can always find something interesting. But, for customers, they only enjoy what they like or even only familiar to. That is different, for sure.
But, I do not believe that we should define "specialty coffee" for the ones, which are interesting only for professionals. What we want to learn more is for our customers too, or may be in future. But, if they can be only intereesting for professionals all the time, it really does not make too much sense. Anyway, people are always going further and further, and one day they can be better than us for now. (my dear, does it really mean what I would say).
"I would never suggest that the Guat. or Papua were superior coffees. They were simply more approachable for my customer."
That seems like the difference between your and your customers' tastes preferations. Sometimes, people like something just for their typical characters, before they have better choise with the similar characters. It does not mean good or not, but prefer or not.
"perishable", I've never seen it.
"The good flavors of these coffees are gone long before the bad flavors of rancid oils start to show up."
It seems that you are making drip coffee, that is normal coffee, not espresso.
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I do understand what you are saying, and have enjoyed the discussion. I agree with parts of what you say and disagree with others. I'm ok with that.
This question of varietal character is really relevant for me right now. I've been tasting some different coffees lately and struggling with a way to capture why I've just been bored with some of it. This Specialty vs Premium distinction really made sense to me, and helped me in that situation.
To clarify, I do not mean to say that the specialty coffees should be only of interest to professionals. There are customers that enjoy "interesting" coffees, in my shop it is probably 5%. In others, I'd guess it was closer to 25%. This is not the majority, but they are important nonetheless. They help motivate us to improve, to seek out better beans and preparations. And when we get it right they tell their friends :)
By perishable, I mean "will go bad quickly". Milk, eggs, and meat are all perishable.
I simply meant that the flavors and aromas that make that coffee enjoyable change and disappear quickly. I do think this applies to both brewed coffee and espresso. Both go from good to ok to bad. All I meant to say was that the coffee stops being good before it goes bad. I hope that made sense.
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Permalink Reply by James Simon on
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Speciality Coffee it has been roasted less than 21 days. Arabica
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Permalink Reply by Alex Negranza on
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I think I might just do a social experiment on this and see what happens. I'd love to try this out and write an article on it. Mind if I steal your idea?
Rich Westerfield said:Great question Spencer. My gut reaction is that if you interviewed 100 random people on a sidewalk in an average town and ask them to define "specialty coffee", you'd get 50 that don't drink coffee for supposed "health" reasons (but would drink ridiculous sugared chai drinks if offered one), 25 that never heard of the term, 15 that would say "Starbucks", 5 that would say "flavored latte" and perhaps 3 or 4 that would say "100% arabica".
Which leaves the 1-2% most of us here really want to talk with and serve.
So I guess I'm saying there's a big divide between how we define "specialty coffee" vs. our customers. And that's probably not good.
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