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A beginner's guide to the world of speciality coffee: The start of a coffee adventure

Welcome, curious coffee lover. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a ‘specialty’ coffee so special (besides the price, of course), you’ve come to the right place. Get ready for a journey full of flavours, technicalities you can use to impress in meetings, and a little bit of spilled coffee because, let’s be honest, it happens all the time.

Regular coffee vs. speciality coffee

First things first: speciality coffee is not just ‘pretty’ coffee. It’s coffee that has gone through a careful process from the plant to your cup. Think of it as the fancy cousin of that instant coffee that saves you on chaotic Mondays. Specialty coffee has:

  • Bean quality: Only beans that scored high in the test (considered specialty between 80 and 90 points) are accepted.
  • Origin: Each bag comes with a complete passport: country, region and even the name of the producer. More information than in some Tinder bios.
  • Flavour: ‘Notes of chocolate, red fruits, wild flowers, passion fruit, caramel…’ sounds more like poetry than coffee, but it’s real.

Assemble your coffee superhero team

If you’re going to enter the world of speciality coffee, you need the right tools. This is not a field for just any broken cup or office coffee maker. The essentials are:

  1. Grinder: No pre-ground coffee here. Buy a grinder (manual or electric) and prepare to feel like an alchemist.
  2. Good roaster: If you don’t have a grinder, try to buy pre-ground coffee from a good roaster.
  3. Scale: Because if you don’t weigh your beans, what kind of coffee fanatic are you? Speciality coffee demands precision.
  4. Extraction method: Aeropress, Chemex, V60… Choose the one that best matches your coffee personality:
    • Aeropress: ‘I am adventurous and I like to travel’.
    • Chemex: ‘Design matters too’.
    • V60: ‘Coffee maths is my secret hobby’.
  5. Good water: Yes, water matters. Don’t use tap water if it tastes like chlorine, unless you want to ruin your glorious coffee.

Learn to speak ceféense

Speciality coffee has its own language. If you want to feel part of the tribe, here are some key phrases:

  • “Third wave coffee”: Not a tide, but the movement that takes coffee to almost artistic levels.
  • “Clear roast”: Forget burnt coffee; here we are looking for bright acidity (yes, acidity is good in coffee).
  • “Cupping”: Basically, a coffee tasting where you can smell, sip and pretend you know what’s going on.
  • “Post-goteo”: That thing you do when you stand and watch the coffee slowly percolate, meditating on life.

Your first coffee adventure trip

The best way to learn is to try. Go to a specialty coffee shop and ask for something other than ‘a latte’. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Pour-over: The essence of coffee without distractions. Every sip is like a poem.
  2. Flat White: If you like dairy products, but also want to feel the coffee in your soul.
  3. Cold Brew: For those hot days (or for the hipsters at heart).

Coffee as a way of life

Once you enter the world of speciality coffee, there’s no turning back. You will start to:

  • Talk about ‘single origin’ instead of ‘just any brand’.
  • Buy bags of coffee that cost more than a restaurant meal.
  • Locate a speciality coffee shop near your work, because ‘the office machine is an insult to coffee’.

Best of all, you’ll discover that coffee is not just a drink, but an experience that connects cultures, flavours and people.

Conclusion

The world of speciality coffee may seem intimidating, but it’s also exciting and delicious, so take heart, brew your beans and take a sip of this new adventure! After all, life is too short to drink mediocre coffee.

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