Specialty Coffee Explained using the Wine industry as an analogy

Introduction

Over the past few years I have been asked to explain what makes specialty coffee so different. I have always used the whiskey industry explaining the specialty coffee is the single malt of the coffee industry; it is marketed mainly through word of mouth rather than through adverts that claim popularity, an increase in intelligence or ability or instant wealth if you purchase the latest option at blend.

Recently however I have though a better analogy would be the wine industry. In some ways in does make sense since the wine industry's quality is also driven by terroir and climate.

So here is my analogy.

Instant coffee = box wine

Most people think instant coffee is coffee. It is as much as box wine is wine. Normally the cheaper the box wine the less tasty it is and the more "additives" it has. This is the case with instant coffee too. You can on a day where the blue moon shone perfectly at 90 degrees of table mountain get a good box of wine, so too it is theoretically possible to drink instant coffee.

Ah I hear you say but surely they are not all as bad as that well some well marketed instant coffee I would agree are a little above box wine. There is another well loved wine (often drunk in brown bags) that was particularly popular when I was a student, and from what I hear still is. The difference between box wine and this product is occasionally it is still drinkable, personally I still cannot drink instants at this level, I believe in desperation on a recent road trip I did try.

Now here is an interesting difference, in South Africa of the coffee that is consumed over 60% of it is instant coffee (luckily this number is depreciating slowly). While most wine drinkers will consider either of the previous options 10-15% of the time in South Africa.

Grading a summary

So let us move on to bean based coffee then. When coffee is picked (no matter what varietal of Arabica or Robusta) it is graded. It is then graded on screen size and defects. Sizing of AAA is the largest of that co-op or farms size. Then it is tasted and only the top tasting coffee (they need to score 80% or higher on the tasting sheet) are reserved for specialty coffee. Specialty coffee is to coffee what a 4 ½ star rating in John platter (or similar) is to wine. Once a coffee is rated as specialty grade it is sold as per its region. The rest of the coffee beans (92-4% of the market, depending on the climate and terroir) is released into the general market where about 20-25% of it is made into instant coffee.

Blends

So back to the wine analogy, just like there are some very well known blends in the wine industry, so to are there well known blends in the coffee industry. Just as a guide Blanc de Blanc and Mocha Java is what I am referring too. Also brand in this level of market is important. Brand is recognised mainly for consistently. So a brand with a great following in wine has as more or less a standard taste every year, no matter what the climate dictated. In South Africa branded blends in coffee take up almost the rest of the coffee market not consumed (punny ha, ha), by the instant coffee market. Leave a small but increasing share in the coffee market for Specialty Coffee.

Specialty or Speciality

Before I continue let me distinguish between coffee speciality and specialty coffee. A coffee speciality is how it is prepared, for example espresso (yum), long espresso (gulp), Americano (some people call this normal coffee), cappuccino, latte etc).

Crema del a Crema

Specialty Coffee is almost like a vintage cabernet. There are those who will rush out and purchase one because they believe that it is the thing to drink, slap it in the glass, that has just come out of the dish washer and consume it before it has had a chance to gulp some oxygen. That to me is almost as bad as purchasing specialty coffee and grinding it; sorry I actually am wrong it is far worse…

Then there are those that appreciate that they are dealing with a wine that represents the best an estate could produce. The lay the wine up and after an acceptable time decant it let it breath and get the best results.

Specialty coffee is the same. You can buy it ground, and you can burn it with water that is above 95 degrees, in your brewing method, almost making it not really worth the while. You can also submerge the nuances of the coffee in 60% milk and more sugar than coffee, but rather not.

Specialty coffee should be enjoyed within 2 weeks of it being roasted (opposite from laying up, since this destroys the taste). Should be ground fresh (opposite from letting it breath) to the quantity you require. And should be prepared by using water between 93 and 95 degrees (also depends on process). And like wine the brewing method should us something that is clean and does not damage the coffee.

Hopefully as more and more people discover specialty coffee we will see a larger percentage of coffee drinkers actually drinking coffee. Here are some stats, in Australia the majority of coffee drinkers no enjoy fresh roasted specialty coffee, in the states almost 30% of the coffee drinkers have converted to specialty coffee since the 70's. In Europe these numbers vary between 5% and 15% (Scandinavians in the lead again), the largest percentage in a country world wide is Ethiopia. We in South Africa are struggling around the 1% mark, but this is changing.