Specialty vs Commercial Coffees

To break the coffee world into to distinct categories of specialty coffee and commercial coffee, is a broad grouping. But it is a good starting point for those not sure what is meant by the two types of categories, so here is a rough guideline based on this broad grouping, in table form:

Specialty Coffee	Commercial Coffee
Normally available in bean form only, in 250g or 1kg bags	Well branded jars, tins and vacuum packed bricks
Fresh roasted using a high quality roaster, roasting normally done manually	Bulk roasted as per of a large plant, roasting automated
Traditional pick and processing methods	Large scale processing methods, quantity is king
Considerably more choice, especially around origin and taste profile	Bulk blending to mask quality of the bean and roast
Purchase by roast date and origin practical and applicable	You get what the brand produces
More opportunity to participate in the coffee	Coffees are faits accomplis
Driven by climate and terrior and crop	Since the quality is not the primary driver buyers can move to cheaper and cheaper markets

 

Today there are some commercial brands that try and replicate the Specialty Coffee product in mainly name, and there are Specialty coffee producers that have become more driven by brand, so the distinction is not as clear as it once was.

Best way to check is look at how important roast date is and what drives their product list.