How Hard Is It To Produce Specialty Coffee?

Learn the whole process of coffee production.

You’ve probably heard about the term specialty coffee before. It might even sound a little snobbish sometimes. After all, what makes one type of coffee so special and different from all the others and why should you care about that? Well, as the coffee industry started to diversify itself and new technologies began to flourish in agriculture practices, changes in culture and consumption patterns allowed specialty coffee to make its way into the market.

What do we love about specialty coffee?

It can even be hard to define what counts as specialty coffee. Generally speaking, it’s high-quality coffee that’s produced, processed, and sold taking into account its origins and growing methods. It can sometimes be environmentally friendly and come from sustainable production. The basis in which specialty coffee is built upon should also consider ethics, fair trade, and fairly paid farmers. However, this is not always the case.

The reason why specialty coffee has become so popular over the years is that the market’s demands have been leaning towards more ethical forms of consumption. People want to know where the products they’re consuming come from and how they were produced. Of course, they also want to taste higher quality coffee, because they see this commodity as something more than just a beverage that keeps us awake. They see the potential for an intimate and special experience.

For some countries, specialty coffee is harder to produce

Many markets across South America and Africa have successfully made their way into the industry and are producing specialty coffee now more than ever; but for poorer countries and farmers, the new wave has been leaving them behind and making it difficult for them to find a place and fair pay for their work. Sustainability is expensive, for one part, and coffee farmers in third world countries often lack the knowledge to understand the real value of their beans. They’ll often accept a lower payment than they should.

According to research made by organizations such as International Women’s Coffee Alliance and CARE International, and quoted by The Perfect Daily Grind, authoritarian regimes, weak institutional frameworks, a lack of transparency, red tape, unfriendly business climates, and poor infrastructure all plague coffee producers. As a result, these producers can struggle to access international markets. This is particularly difficult in Burundi, Cameroon, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.

The truth is that many of these farmers need resources and education to meet their full potential. Specialty coffee needs technology and heavy workforce. Many farmers are part of poor families that live in rural areas and can’t simply afford nor even understand specialty coffee. However, if they did, it could do wonders for them and their country’s economy. For now, we can continue to buy consciously for coffee that meets ethical means of production, so we let know the industry that this is a future worth investing in.

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That Coffee Roasters

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2697 W. 76 Street, Hialeah, Florida 33016

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