It started off as a more or less trademarked branding of a philosophy of coffee sourcing focused on having green coffee buyers take multiple trips to the specific farms they bought coffee from, seeking to work with producers to improve quality and develop more mutually beneficial business relationships. The coffee certification also specifies a “premium” price paid above the “C” market price for commodity grade coffee, a premium for organic certified fair trade coffees, and a premium for social projects in producing countries.Īlso a loosely applied/heavily appropriated term used to gesture at or claim allegiance to a wide range of trade and business philosophies, though these philosophies don’t always have a lot to do with the specific fair trade certification stipulations for their industries.ĭirect Trade: At least “Fair Trade” has standards bodies to make it a little more specific. First pioneered in coffee and later extended out to a whole range of industries, each with a specific set of regulations around trade agreements, lending, labor practice, and company and cooperative structure and governance. Microbrewing, at least as a philosophical approach for a company, has more useful specificity and mainstream familiarity than “specialty coffee.”įree Trade: A neoliberal concept that helped enable and define the function of “modern” international commodity markets, of which the coffee trade is one of the most canonical.įair Trade: A trademarked certification, which both retailing and producing companies must pay annual fees for, administered by a web of national and international organizations. For beer, there’s “craft beer” and “microbrews/microbreweries”, two terms that have seen wide adoption and serious marketing promotion across a whole movement of companies in that industry. It’s just too bad there isn’t (yet) a commonly accepted term that better denotes the quality-focused coffee establishments that focus on skilled production. But specialty is specialty, and we think you’re specialty too. Verdict: This term is often misinterpreted or misunderstood by everyone, including coffee professionals. Using this metric, the Starbucks Coffee you can scoop yourself at the grocery store is just as specialty as the nano-lot single-farm coffee sold in four-ounce gold-rimmed amber jars, though some might consider that extra-specialty. Officially, the Specialty Coffee Association of America classifies any coffee that scores over 80 points on the industry-standard grading 100 point scale as “specialty”. It was first coined by coffee pioneer Erna Knutsen (of Knutsen Coffees) in 1974. Specialty: Specialty (or “speciality” in Europe) is a word that the industry uses to denote coffee of a certain caliber, though the term has experienced a lot of slippage and overloading. Starbucks baristas are hand-crafting their superautomatic shots as well. But really, all of that sounds like a little much. Coffee cultivation, specifically picking, is almost entirely hand-crafted–except in many parts of more industrialized growing regions like Brazil or Vietnam. While coffee roasting can be considered “hand-crafted”, one could easily take advantage of a reaching wand or some other instrument to replace one’s hand. Hand-crafted: “A work produced by hand labor” (not to be confused with handmade, which is something created by hand). A selection of impulse buys in mason jars on your counter does not count as “sundries”. Verdict: Unless your cafe is selling Alternative Apparel sweatshirts (or other ready-to-wear items) you’re probably not working with dry goods. The 1892 Dictionary Of Dry Goods does not list coffee. Might refer to an artesian aquifer, which is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure.ĭry goods: “Typically refers to clothing, ready-to-wear items, and sundries.” Dates back to 1742. An artisanal latte? Why not.Īrtisian: Not a word. Verdict: While perhaps overdone these days, one can certainly call boutique coffee roasters artisanal. Verdict: It’s safe to say roasters and baristas are both artisans.Īrtisanal: “Pertaining to or noting a high-quality or distinctive product made in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods.” But what’s the difference between hand-crafted and hand-made? What does “ specialty” mean, exactly? Who can blame them? In this day and age, locally sourced and carefully curated heritage products are de rigueur. Coffee companies worldwide are adopting terminology, inventing new words, and repurposing old words to market and sell their goods.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |