Specialty Coffee Specialty coffee is coffee made from remarkable beans grown just in perfect coffee-producing climates. The distinct characteristics of the soil where the coffee plants are grown integrated with the perfect environment develops distinct tastes that makes specialty coffee beans so in-demand. For this reason, they are often referred to as gourmet or premium coffee. The First Specialized Coffee The initial person to ever use the expression "specialized coffee" was Erna Knutsen, who created the term in the 1974 issue of the Tea & & Coffee Trade Journal. Knutsen, then a coffee buyer for B.C. Ireland in San Francisco, developed the term while trying to describe beans with outstanding tastes due to the special microclimates utilized in their cultivation. From then on, the phrase became a typical term utilized to describe tasty, high quality coffee. However it was not up until the late 1990s, when the expansion of coffee shops and premium coffee sellers, that the term specialty was regularly used. That, integrated with the ever increasing appeal of coffee drinking has made specialized coffee among the fastest growing food service markets worldwide. In 2004, specialized coffee netted an approximated $9.6 billion in the United States alone.

Why Specialty Coffee?

For the easy factor that a cup of specialty coffee tastes considerably better than a cup made kind regular coffee beans. From the time the coffee plant was cultivated to the time they are harvested, dried, and roasted, specialized coffee beans are prepared according to precise requirements to guarantee excellent tasting coffee. Exactly what's more, specialty coffee should pass rigid certification process to guarantee that it is without defects and imperfections, in a test called the "cupping method.

What is Cupping?

If you consider yourself a specialty coffee connoisseur, then you probably heard of the term "cupping" and probably even know the meaning of it. But for the benefit of others who don't, cupping is a system of assessment utilized to test the scent and taste of coffee beans. Growers, purchasers, and roasters use the cupping approach in order to "grade" the quality of a specific sample of specialized coffee. Generally, there are six things that you need to look into when cupping: * Scent-- or the odor of the beans after grinding * Aroma-- different from fragrance in that it is the smell of ground-up beans after being steeped in water * Taste-- or the flavor of the coffee * Nose-- in similar method as the term is used in wine tasting, it means the vapors and tastes released by coffee in your mouth * Aftertaste - or the vapors and tastes that stay after you swallow * Body-- the feel of the coffee in the mouth The steps associated with cupping specialty coffee are frequently extremely exact and is actually a step by action procedure. That is why buyers, owners of specialty coffee homes, and makers work with just trained people to do their cupping for them.