SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023

The 360° column is a voyage of discovery of

the world contained in a cup of coffee. That
which is hidden within that simple gesture that
accompanies us every day.

We will talk to the people involved in the different

processes related to the world’s best-selling
beverage. From cultivation and processing
methods to roasting and serving in the cup.

# 03
________
EN 2023

What is Coffee is part of our daily routine,

Specialty
but have you ever wondered
what lies behind each cup?
In this column of Coffee 360°,

Coffee?
we will talk about specialty coffee:
what differentiates it from
‘standard’ coffee?
 SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023

Let’s start by defining what is meant by ‘specialty

coffee’ or ‘special coffee’.
This coffee is of such high quality that it scores
80 or more out of 100 on the Coffee Review
Scale. This score is assigned by a professional: a
certified specialty coffee taster or Q-grader.

Specialty
specialists
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is the Primary defects are considered to be the most
main reference point for high-quality coffee. It severe and have the greatest effect on the taste,
establishes the international standards for coffee aroma, and appearance of the roasted and
evaluation. extracted coffee.
These standards mainly concern the evaluation of Secondary defects are considered less severe
the beans’ appearance and the coffee’s properties than primary defects but can still affect the quality
when tasted. of the roasted coffee. These defects can impact
the flavour, aroma and texture of the beverage.
Appearance evaluations are conducted on a 350
grams sample of green coffee to identify primary The second evaluation of tasting properties is
and secondary defects. carried out after roasting. The coffee is ground
A specialty coffee must be free of primary defects and tasted through a standardised cupping
and may have a maximum of 5 secondary defects. protocol, which assigns the ‘cupping score’:
90-100 - Outstanding (Specialty)
85-89.99 - Excellent (Specialty)
80-84.99 - Very good (Specialty)
< 80.0 - Below the Specialty threshold (Non Specialty)

+80/100
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Who is the Patrick O’Malley, Q-Grader, trainer and roaster

Q-Grader?
of the Sanremo family, was among the first to
become certified.
“Initially, CQI only provided Q-Grader certification,”
Patrick tells us. “However, the considerable com-
Q-Grader is a certification programme developed mitment of time, resources and prior knowledge
by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) to train expert made this certification difficult to achieve.”
tasters and help certify coffee quality. Q-Grader “To increase enrolment and spread the coffee
certified experts are highly skilled in the sensory culture more widely, CQI has developed a series of
analysis of coffee and can evaluate its quality in courses with varying levels of difficulty. They are
terms of aroma, taste, body and acidity. more easily accessible and have had much higher
attendance rates. In this way, every profession
The impact of the Q-Grader in the world of (baristas, roasters, tasters, cultivators) now has a
specialty coffee has been significant. Before dedicated course and does not necessarily have
introducing this programme, the quality evaluation to become a Q-Grader.”
of coffee was subjective and mainly based on
personal opinion. The coffee evaluation process Patrick advises all coffee professionals to take
has been standardised with the introduction of at least the sensory analysis course “Sensory
the Q-Grader. Evaluation in Quality Control 200”.

A trend that One might think that the specialty coffee trend
is new.
Actually, the term specialty was first used in the

started in
late 1970s by Erna Knutsen (American coffee
entrepreneur and co-founder of SCA) in an article
published in the ‘Tea and Coffee Trade Journal’

the 1970s
magazine. Knutsen used this term to describe
the best-tasting beans produced in unique
microclimates.

Many commercial coffee-growing countries also

produce a small quantity of specialty coffee, with
some exceptions.
Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Colombia are
often synonymous with specialty coffee.
Other countries, however, are pushing to produce
some of the best coffees in the world. For
instance, Panama has made a name for itself in
recent years thanks to highly skilled cultivators, a
4 focus on an increased biodiversity, and a variety
of microclimates (due to its small size and the
effects of two surrounding oceans).
 SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023 7

A figure
in the service
of quality
Thanks to the training offered by CQI, SCA and A tangible example is when a roaster with a
others, the sector has evolved in terms of quality: CQI certification can give direct feedback to the
it has put buyers in a position to purchase high- farmer on the quality of the coffee received.
quality coffee more efficiently, thus improving the
quality of the product offered to end consumers. Patrick recounted a recent experience: he had
The figure of the Q-Grader has also contributed received batches of coffee for roasting, but many
to improving the training and competence of beans were broken and had defects.
coffee traders, enabling them to identify the Thanks to the skills he gained from the CQI
sensory characteristics of coffee and assess its courses, he gave precise feedback on the quality
quality independently. of the coffee received so that the producer could
correct some processing steps to deliver a better
quality coffee the next time.

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 SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023 9

What is Cultivation
hidden As we saw in previous 360° column, where we
talked about the coffee Martin Shabaya brought

behind
to the World Barista Championship finals, taking
care of the soil is the first step.
There are several techniques to monitor the

a cup of
quality of the soil and its properties.
For example, its pH can be corrected using
charcoal obtained by burning the waste from

specialty
coffee plants.
The aim at this step is to achieve the best possible
quality, not quantity.

coffee
Only the ripest cherries free of defects are picked
during the harvest after quality control.
The selectors are usually given a reference colour,
and the harvested fruits are rechecked at a later
stage to assure maximum quality.

Coffee
processing
The life cycle of Once the best cherries have been picked, they are
processed by removing the layers surrounding

specialty coffee the beans.

Using the natural method, the coffee beans are har-

What happens if an excellent raw material, vested, dried and roasted without being washed to
defined specialty, is roasted without attention remove the surrounding pulp and mucilage. This
or improperly extracted? You can imagine the process allows the beans to retain most of their
answer: the starting quality of the coffee is not natural oils and aromas, resulting in a more com-
enhanced; on the contrary! plex and richly flavoured cup of coffee.

The supply chain of coffee is very long and The washed method involves removing the pulp
delicate. Therefore, passing the baton among and mucilage from the coffee beans before the
those who produce, transport, roast, and serve drying step. This method produces a cleaner and
the coffee is essential. brighter coffee than the natural method but can
All the actors involved in this process have an also lose some flavours and aromas.
equally important role to play.
The honey method lies somewhere between the
natural and the washed process. In this case, the
pulp is removed from the coffee beans, but some
mucilage is left adhering to the beans during
drying. This gives the coffee a sweet and fruity,
8 honey-like flavour.
 SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023 11

Purchasing
and analysing
green coffee
Choosing a reliable and specialised supplier is
essential when buying high-quality green coffee.
Generally, green coffee suppliers can provide
detailed information on the coffee’s origin, variety,
processing method and quality.

In addition, it is advisable to conduct a sensory

analysis of green coffee before purchasing. This
analysis uses a tasting, during which the green
beans are evaluated according to their aroma,
flavour, body, acidity and sweetness. This allows
any defects or imperfections to be identified. The
figure of a Q-Grader is crucial at this step.

There are also physical analysis tools for green

coffee that allow the evaluation of its density,
moisture and other technical parameters.
These tools make it possible to identify any
problems or structural defects in the coffee and
assess its quality.

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 SANREMO 360° #03 / 2023 13

Roasting At the end of this step, the coffee

starts to crackle. This phenome-
non is called the ‘first crack’: the
Along with the processes we have just seen, development step begins at this
roasting the beans is another fundamental step moment.
to allow coffee to achieve its full aroma and
flavour potential. Development step: the temperature
is reduced to prevent the bean from
Roasting requires care and attention, allowing the burning. At this step, the roasted
coffee to develop the flavours we will smell in the coffee acquires its definitive fla-
cup later. vour and aroma.
It is divided into three main steps: drying, reaction However, there can be up to a sec-
and development. ond crack: a further crack (less noisy than the first
one) by which the beans become darker and are
Drying step: the heat allows the water in the covered with an oily layer.
beans to evaporate, causing steam to escape to
the outside. This step is critical as the moisture At this point, the roasted coffee is cooled rapidly
must be removed before the bean begins to burn. to stop the roasting process. It can be used
immediately or left to rest briefly to develop the
Reaction step: its name comes from a series of flavour and aroma further.
chemical reactions that occur inside the bean
during this step. High temperatures cause sugars Light roasting is often used in specialty coffee
and amino acids to decompose, forming aromatic because it better preserves the aromatic and
compounds that give coffee its distinct flavour. taste notes of green coffee, such as acidity and
The bean starts to darken and turn brown. sweetness, which would be covered by more
intense roasting.

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Sanremo
and
specialty
coffee
Sanremo discovered the specialty coffee com-
Danilo Llopis, Sanremo’s R&D manager, explains
that Sanremo’s mission is to help enhance every
type of coffee. If the machines developed can
enhance the best specialty coffees, they will also
munity at the UK Barista Championships 2013, do so with non-specialty coffees or blends.
an event of which it is a sponsor and at which it
supplied the Verona TCS as an official machine. The latest technological innovation developed by
The first big step was taken shortly afterwards Sanremo from a specialty perspective is the new
with the ambitious project to create a coffee X-One: a grinder that minimises retention and
machine based on the needs of baristas: thus, allows maximum consistency in weighing and,
Opera was born. thus, in extraction.

Grinding and Therefore, it is necessary to conduct tests to

determine the right coffee grind. For example, it

extraction is possible to adjust the grinding and try brewing

coffee. If the coffee is too acidic, the grinding
should be made finer; if the coffee is too bitter,
Adjusting the coffee grinding is essential to the grinding should be made coarser.
making a good cup because it influences how the
hot water extracts solute from the ground coffee, In addition to the grain size chosen, the freshness
such as aroma, taste and body. of the coffee is also essential. Grinding the coffee
shortly before extraction is essential to preserve
The type of coffee grind depends on the extraction most of the organoleptic proper-
method you intend to use. ties of the beverage. It only takes
a few minutes to lose most of it.
First, adjust the grind to make the coffee beans
coarse enough. In this way, water will not be able With this in mind, grinders such
to pass easily through the coffee, and the result as Sanremo’s X-One help baristas
will be an underdeveloped, acidic coffee without to always have fresh coffee, with
a body. precise weighing that allows them
to respect the recipe and avoid
At this point, the grinding can be adjusted to make wasting raw material.
it finer and finer until the coffee is full-bodied and
less acidic. However, if the grinding is too fine, the It is essential to experiment with
water may struggle to pass through the coffee. In coffee grinding to achieve the
this case, you risk obtaining a bitter, burnt coffee. desired taste. Once you find the
right grinding for your chosen cof-
fee preparation method, you can
make a cup of coffee with a bal-
anced and satisfying taste.

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Conscious
consumption and
purchasing Take home
messages
Sustainability is increasingly being discussed in
this historical period, and coffee is no exception.
It is essential to choose quality coffee by checking
that it is sourced from sustainable and responsible The world of coffee is vast: one
cultivation, preferably of a single origin. that fascinates and overwhelms.
Knowing where the coffee comes from is Technological development is
essential to determine how it was cultivated, helping to improve the quality of
processed and roasted. This information helps to the raw material and the different
understand the quality of the coffee and its value. processes.
The method of coffee preparation also makes a Another aspect to consider is environmental and Tommaso Meneghin
difference: it should respect the environment and social sustainability. This is where the specialty
produce as little waste as possible. For example, movement is making enormous progress: from
one may prefer mocha or espresso rather than increasing attention to the environment during
methods that use paper or plastic filters. cultivation to improving producers’ living and
Also, from a ‘personal’ point of view, coffee working conditions.
should be enjoyed responsibly. Avoiding sugar
or milk allows to appreciate the nuances of taste Additionally, specialty involves sharing knowl-
and aroma better. edge regarding coffee consumption. In the next
Moreover, coffee should be consumed in episode, we will look at the world of coffee com-
moderation, limiting consumption to one or two petitions, which (similar to the sports industry) is
cups a day and avoiding drinking it during the greatly boosting research and development.
evening to avoid disrupting sleep.

Sanremo Coffee Machines s.r.l.

Via Giacomo Bortolan 52, 31050 Vascon di Carbonera [TV] – ITALY
T +39 0422 448900 / F +39 0422 448935
Sanremo Coffee Machines USA, Inc
99 Grand Street, Unit 20, Moonachie, New Jersey 07074 – USA
[email protected]
www.sanremomachines.com
Sanremo UK, LTD
6/7 Thurloe Pl, South Kensington, London SW7 2RX – UK
[email protected]