Specialty coffee is distinguished by its quality, graded by certified 'Q graders' under international standards set by the Coffee Quality Institute and the Specialty Coffee Association. These trained professionals evaluate coffee through a method called 'cupping,' scoring various attributes including taste, aroma, and defects. Beans rated 80 and above are classified as specialty, while those scoring over 90 represent the best quality. Recent reports suggest climate change, particularly affecting regions like Vietnam, is impacting coffee supply, highlighting the importance of cultivation conditions for specialty coffee production.
The International Coffee Organization (ICO) released a report in 2024 with data showing that exports of coffee from the 50-plus coffee regions in the world hadn't increased as much as it had in previous years.
Coffee beans rated 90 and above are considered to be the creme de la creme and account for less than one-percent of specialty coffee worldwide.
Collection
[
|
...
]