What is speciality coffee?

October 15, 2026

The term speciality coffee is thrown around a lot but what does it actually mean? Does the coffee have to come from a certain place like Champaign? Does it have to be processed in a special way? Is it picked by nuns at the top of a secret mountain? No.

The answer is actually quite simple, coffee can be graded using a 100 point scale developed by the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA). Anything that scores 80 or above on this scale is considered speciality.

The scale scores coffee on 5 aspects:

Flavour - the taste
Aroma.- the smell
Acidity - how much acidity comes through in the taste
Body - how the coffee feels in the mouth
Defects - whether there are any defects with the beans (black beans, broken beans, fungus or insect damage, etc)

Ratings can be given to coffees by people called Q graders, they hold the correct qualifications from the Coffee Graders Institute (CGI) to be able to rate speciality coffee.

Although green coffee is marked as speciality, it can only be graded once it’s roasted and cupped, so in order to make the process comparable across all different coffees the same roast level, brew ratio, waters and cupping process is used to create a controlled protocol referred to as the Q System.

Although the scoring doesn’t take into account things such as origin or process, due to the scoring, we tend to find some common traits of speciality coffee:

Single Origin - blending with commodity beans reduces the quality, often speciality blends are made up of several individual speciality single origins
Arabica Coffee - robusta doesn’t usually make the cut for speciality coffee, achieving scores below 80
Precision Processing - careful processing preserves the flavours and closely monitoring it allows the outcome to be repeatable
Distinctive Flavours - often speciality coffee will have flavours you can pick out in the cup which elevate them above a generic coffee flavour
Traceability - direct relationships with growers or cooperatives means better communication of desired results and therefor better coffees and a more ethical supply chain