Predicting the Future of Specialty Coffee

As we know that coffee is the most consumed beverage for over centuries, from the booming well known coffee shop chain to small local coffee nearby where you're at right now. Coffee manufacturing process which includes roasting green coffee into finished products (Roasted coffee) that are ready to be brewed by general customers either at home or coffee shops. The main goal of coffee manufacturing is to help consumers enjoy the finished product without hassle. I would like to give an example of the easiest product in the market right now is instant coffee, but in our specialty world we inquired customer/brewer/drinker to do so much further that affecting the coffee flavor itself. That is what makes specialty coffee unique and complicated.

The future of specialty coffee will be considered as the fourth/fifth wave which was the advancement of technology that involved innovation in food manufacturing to turn specialty coffee quality into scalable and approachable for the general market in massive production. It is not going to be an easy path for the industry since the cost of production in specialty coffee was quite high. For you who does not know what is the idea of specialty coffee is, I will give you a general idea of specialty coffee, so specialty coffee was born in the cupping table which involved specific coffee professionals that are calibrated in taste and agree in terms of coffee quality, they are using scoring and grading systems that are regulated by Specialty Coffee Association.

At some point, some professionals are willing to go above and beyond to be calibrated with others by doing certifications like well known as Q grader for Arabica and R grader for Robusta. This type of certifications are highly recommended for someone who pursues their career in the coffee industry, especially coffee roasters, traders and Quality Control related types of job, because in this certification are highly dependent on your sensory skills.

The current trend in specialty coffee products that are available in the market is mostly in the form of coffee drip bags, capsule, instant, ready to drink in bottles like cold brew, cold latte, ect. At the farm level, specialty coffee is trying to improve their processing and farming technique that includes planting new cultivar or variety. In processing, they have various processing methods including the new development of traditional processing methods such as washed, honey and natural. For instance, in natural processes, as I know, we have anaerobic and aerobic processes including extended fermentation just to intensify the fermenty taste in the cup that adds on because of the process. New funky processes are introduced to draw customer attention and gain more ground for the specialty coffee market in some ways, but in other ways, it is a way to improve coffee quality in terms of flavor.

Furthermore, most educated farmers tried to implement more sustainable farming techniques and planted cultivars or varieties that are resistant to various diseases and climate change on top of modern processing techniques that we are talking about in the previous paragraph. To make all of that happen, they need full support from the private sector and government since it requires a big amount of capital.

Most of all, convenient and customer experience will be the main goal for the future of specialty coffee in my opinion. The growth of home coffee consumption is getting higher with the quality conscious customers at the other ends. But the cost of that convenience, some of them (the carbon footprint) could probably damage the environment since coffee required special packaging at its best, especially plastic. Like the one way valve that keeps the coffee degas and all kinds of non-recyclable material packaging that is mostly available out in the market plus limited recycling facility to process the waste.