Coffee basic knowledge what is boutique coffee

Specialty Coffee has a strict definition as a proper term. Like fine wine and tea, the geographical environment, climatic characteristics and planting traditions of different producing areas form the "Terroir", which is also the soul of coffee in fine producing areas.

Specialty Coffee, as a proper term, was first proposed by Erna Knustsen, known as the "godmother of specialty coffee," in Tea & Coffee Trade Journal in 1974, highlighting that "specialty coffee with unique flavor can only be cultivated in the most favorable microclimate and soil", aiming to distinguish it from bulk commercial coffee on the New York Futures Exchange.

In 1972, Ms. Knudsen and Donna. Donald N. Schoenholt and other six co-founded the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), and the word "specialty coffee" became a global term. Knudsen has always opposed the coffee industry to pursue the invariance and monotony of flavor with low-cost formula beans, ignoring the unique "Terroir" of coffee soil and water, that is, soil, variety, climate and water are different, creating different coffee flavors, which is the soul of fine coffee. Less unique regional flavor, it is not fine coffee, but reduced to general commercial beans or stale canned coffee (large canned coffee beans or powder).

Ms. Knudsen first proposed the concept of fine coffee, emphasizing the relationship between upstream growing environment and coffee quality. Now, the American Specialty Coffee Association has redefined the concept of specialty coffee:

Carefully select the most suitable varieties, planted in the most conducive to coffee flavor development of altitude, climate and soil environment. Carefully washed and sun processing, select the most flawless raw beans, zero defects in the transportation process to the customer's hands. After the roaster's superb craftsmanship, the most abundant regional flavor is extracted, and then the delicious coffee is brewed in a recognized extraction method.

According to this definition, the connotation of fine coffee includes not only the core factor of planting environment, but also the three most critical process links of green bean treatment process, roasting process and extraction (brewing) process. In short, fine coffee should be a high-quality coffee with the trinity of "good beans, good roasting and good extraction".