Coffee knowledge what is fine coffee? Specialty coffee

What is boutique coffee?

Boutique coffee (specialty coffee) is also called "specialty coffee" or "select coffee". It refers to coffee made from a small number of raw beans with excellent taste grown in an ideal geographical environment. Depending on the special soil and climatic conditions in which they grow, they have outstanding flavor.

Source of boutique coffee:

The term "boutique coffee" was first coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974 in Tea & Coffee Trade Journal magazine. At that time, Erna Knutsen, as a coffee buyer at B.C. Ireland in San Francisco, coined the term to describe coffee beans with distinctive flavor characteristics that grew in a special environment.

In the 1990s, with the rapid increase of boutique coffee retailers and cafes, boutique coffee became one of the fastest growing markets in the catering industry, reaching $12.5 billion in the United States alone in 2007.

The meaning of boutique coffee

"Fine Coffee" refers to coffee that uses the best quality beans, roasted properly to maximize its potential flavor and stably extracted under certain conditions. It does not only refer to the brewing process of coffee, but also includes many details of the coffee from growth to production.

Boutique coffee begins with the origin of coffee, the diversity of coffee varieties, and the differences in coffee growth conditions (temperature, soil, sunshine, height, etc.). It also includes the human factors in the growth process: careful cultivation, manual picking, fine processing, and manual picking.

High-quality coffee raw beans must be flawless and high-quality beans. It should have an outstanding flavor, not "no bad taste", but "taste particularly good".

The next process of boutique coffee is "baking". This is a crucial process. In this process, the combination of coffee roaster and raw beans will determine the fate of raw beans. A good barista can maximize the flavor potential of raw beans through proper baking, while an inskilled baker can destroy a batch of good beans.

For roasted beans, "freshness" is also a key. If coffee beans lose their inherent aroma, it will not be a "boutique".

The next step is the "extraction" process. There are many ways to make coffee, the key is to adopt a method suitable for high-quality coffee and to operate it correctly. The ratio of coffee powder to water, the mild time of extraction water, the grinding degree of coffee and so on are all factors that affect a cup of fine coffee.

Finally, the definition of "fine coffee" is formed in a cup of coffee. Before this cup of coffee is delivered to customers, it has experienced the devotion of thousands of people, and every small detail in the middle is the guarantee of the "boutique" of boutique coffee.

Why drink boutique coffee?

It's very simple-because it tastes better! Because boutique coffee grows in a special geographical environment and has been carefully planted and processed, and has been strictly screened and tested to ensure the consistency of quality, it has a rich and balanced taste that ordinary coffee does not have. and boutique coffee is only sold in some professional boutique coffee shops.