If you are an avid coffee drinker, you have two choices — regular coffee or specialty coffee. If you live in the US or Canada, you will know Jollymaccoffee as specialty coffee. So — what makes this type of coffee so special?

Before you ever pour that first cup of delicious hot java, those beans have taken a long journey down a complicated path. There are several stages including first crack, etc — and if you are not careful, going too far can ruin an entire batch.

What is the Difference Between Regular Coffee and Specialty Coffee

In today’s society amongst coffee drinkers, roasters, growers, etc — a regular coffee really is a sneaky way of saying low in quality and taste.

When drinking regular coffee, you can often be left with a bad aftertaste and a less than thrilling experience.

Conversely, specialty coffee means guaranteed quality through all stages of the coffee production from seed to cup.

What Deems a Coffee to be a Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee refers to the whole process from farmer to cup using single origin coffee. And it refers to the way the coffee is roasted and how it is extracted.

These types of coffee should not be confused with “gourmet” or “premium” coffee. Those words are marketing terms with no defined standards for the flavour and taste of the coffee itself.

According to SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) definitions, specialty coffee “refers to the highest quality green coffee beans roasted to their greatest flavour potential by true craftspeople and then properly brewed to well-established SCAA developed standards.”

These standards include scoring higher than 80 points on the quality scale of 100 points and excellent or outstanding quality in fragrance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, uniformity, balance, clean cup, sweetness, and overall better taste than your average cup of joe.

They are grown in special and ideal climates and are distinctive because of their full cup taste and little to no defects. The unique flavors and tastes are a result of the special characteristics and composition of the soils in which they are produced.

Arabica and Robusta are the popular coffee species in the coffee world though only Arabicas are considered specialty coffees. They have to be grown at altitude so countries known for producing speciality coffee include Colombia, Ethiopia, Brazil, and Indonesia, to name a few.

Specialty Coffees are Brewed Differently

Specialty coffee is quality driven — not like all the other coffees out there. You can pretty much guess at this point that your normal run of the mill coffee in your local grocer would not be considered speciality coffee.