What is speciality coffee?

You've probably seen the words "speciality coffee" on bags, café menus, and websites – including ours. But what does it actually mean? And why should you care?

The short answer: it's the highest quality category in coffee, defined by a strict grading system. The longer answer is worth knowing, because once you understand it, you'll never look at your morning cup the same way.

The definition: more than just a score

Speciality coffee is coffee that scores 80 or above out of 100 on the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) grading scale. That score is assigned by certified professionals called Q Graders – trained tasters who evaluate each coffee across multiple attributes, including aroma, flavour, acidity, body, balance, and aftertaste.

But a score alone doesn't tell the whole story. What the SCA grade really reflects is a commitment to quality at every single stage – from the soil a plant grows in, right through to the moment coffee lands in your cup. If anything goes wrong along the way, the score drops.

Why the supply chain matters

Unlike commodity coffee, which is often grown for volume and roasted dark to mask defects, speciality coffee is produced with flavour as the priority from the very beginning.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

At the farm: Farmers grow carefully selected varieties – most often Arabica – at altitude, in well-managed conditions. Only ripe cherries are picked – often by hand.

At the mill: The processing method – whether washed, natural, or honey – is carried out with care, and has a significant influence on the coffee's final flavour.

At the roastery: Roasters work with the coffee rather than against it, developing roast profiles that bring out its best qualities rather than cooking them away.

In your cup: Brew method, grind, water temperature, and ratio all play a role. Speciality coffee rewards a little attention.

Every link in that chain has to hold. One weak point – poor harvesting, rough processing, over-roasting – and the coffee's potential for speciality grade is lost.

Where the term came from

The phrase "speciality coffee" was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen, a coffee trader who recognised that certain beans – grown in specific microclimates and handled with care – had something genuinely different to offer. She used the term to distinguish those coffees from the mass-produced commodity market.

The idea took hold slowly, then quickly. By the 2000s, a new wave of independent roasters, importers, and cafés were building businesses around it. The UK speciality coffee scene has grown significantly over the past two decades, with hundreds of independent roasters doing remarkable work.

Speciality vs commodity: what's the actual difference in the cup?

This is where things get interesting.

Commodity coffee – the kind that fills supermarket shelves and most chain coffee shops – is typically blended, roasted dark, and designed for consistency at scale. There's nothing wrong with that for what it is. But it's not trying to taste of anything in particular.

Speciality coffee is the opposite. Because the raw material is better, and because every step has been handled with care, the flavours that develop are more complex, more vivid, and more distinctive.

A washed Ethiopian coffee might remind you of bergamot and peach. A natural processed coffee from Brazil might be rich and chocolatey or smooth and nutty. These aren't flavourings added to the coffee – they're natural characteristics of the bean, the terroir, the process.

That's what makes speciality coffee genuinely exciting, even for people who've been drinking coffee for years.

Does it have to be single origin?

Not necessarily. Many speciality roasters offer both single origin coffees and blends. What matters is that each component of a blend meets the speciality grade threshold.

Single origin coffees are great for exploring the range of what coffee can taste like. Blends are often better suited to milk-based drinks, where you want a balanced, consistent flavour. Both can be excellent. Both can be speciality.

Is speciality coffee worth the extra cost?

A bag of speciality coffee typically costs more than a supermarket equivalent, but the reasons for that gap are real: better raw material, higher loss rates from careful selection, more skilled labour at every stage, and fairer prices paid to producers.

What you get in return is coffee that actually tastes of something – and a cup you're likely to enjoy more. For most people who make the switch, the question quickly becomes "why did I wait so long?".

Our take at Handful Coffee

We roast speciality grade coffee in small batches, sourcing beans from importers we trust. We're a small, independent roastery, which means we can be choosy about what we roast – we only work with coffees we're genuinely excited about.

Every coffee on our site comes with full information on its origin, processing method, and tasting notes, so you know exactly what you're buying and why we love it.

If you're new to speciality coffee, our coffee collection is a good place to start. If you're not sure which coffee suits you, get in touch – we're happy to help.