Six things you need to know about boutique coffee the difference between boutique coffee and individual coffee

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1. Who proposed the concept of boutique coffee?

In 1974, Ms. Erna Knutsen, the founder of Knutsen Coffee in the United States, put forward the concept of boutique coffee in the coffee journal "Tea & Coffee Trade Journal". At that time, it refers to "coffee beans grown in a specific climate with unique flavor", which is boutique coffee.

two。 Who contributed to the flames?

In 1982, a group of coffee fans set up the American Fine Coffee Association (Specialty Coffee Association of America) to carry forward this concept. They trained a group of cup testers (Cupper) to drink coffee beans from all over the country and then give them a score of 100. More than 80 points are fine coffee, which is easy to understand and finally becomes the mainstream. Since then, Europe, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and other places have also set up their own boutique coffee associations.

3. What is the content of the evaluation process?

According to the most traditional Cupping method, it is tested by approved Cupper. Grind coffee beans with medium roasting degree, first smell the coffee dry, then inject hot water to smell the wet fragrance, finally pick up the cup noodle coffee powder, sip it and spit it out, according to the purity of the coffee (turbidity will be low), sweetness (honey or caramel flavor, represents the coffee fruit is ripe at harvest), acidity (bright acidity Can not be exciting astringent acid), taste (dense and smooth is the top grade), flavor (high score will have fruit, flower and even smoky flavor), sweet (sweet and long will lead to high score), balance (hot drink and cold drink will change) and overall feeling to score.

4. Who can be Cupper?

As long as you follow the cup test criteria, it is already Cupper. But to become a professional Cupper, you have to pass the exam. Coffee Quality Institute, a non-profit organization in the United States, requires people who want to become Cupper to pass three days of intensive tests, including raw bean grading, baking classification, cup testing skills, and sensory skills, before they can qualify for Cupper.

5. Is there a recognized Cupper in China?

At present, there are about 1200 cup testers in the world, six in Hong Kong, four in China and eight in Taiwan.

6. How to choose so many boutique coffee?

Because of the popularity of boutique coffee, coffee farms all over the world take this as the main hit, the good and the bad are mixed, so coffee bean competitions are held everywhere to select the best of the boutiques, such as Guatemala Super quality Coffee Cup Test Competition (Guatemalan Exceptional Cup), Panama preferred Coffee Cup Test Competition (Best of Panama) and Ethiopia Gold Award Coffee Cup Test Competition (Ethiopia Ecafe Gold).

The most authoritative one is definitely Cup of Excellence (CoE). CoE, which originated in Brazil in 1999, helps coffee farmers to rate and price coffee beans and encourages third World estates to grow excellent coffee beans. At present, a number of South American and African countries participate in the competition, which is evaluated once a year. In the selection, the Cupper of our country and other countries will test the coffee beans of nearly 150 estates in two stages within ten days. As long as any one of the assessors disagrees at any stage, the coffee beans will be out immediately and strive for excellence. Only those estates with an average score of more than 84 are eligible to be called CoE coffee beans, which are then auctioned online by institutions to coffee fans around the world. The highest bidder gets most of the proceeds.