Specialty Coffee

A simple set of rules that would define Specialty coffee.

1. Freshness. It is generally accepted that roasted coffee stales.  Specialty coffee should therefore have short shelf live. I would suggest 3 month maximum. Beyond that date it is still good coffee, just not special.  Such a rule would immediately exclude most of the big mainstream roasters who work with a 1 or 2 year best before date.
2. Packaging. Shops and Webshops supplying coffee to the public, should always offer coffee in 250g packaging. The logic behind this is simple, 250g equals 30 espressos. 30 coffees per week is 4 per day.  This is a normal healthy consumption. It doesn't exclude selling kilo packs to those who drink more or have larger families. But single people with average consumption should be able to buy a weeks worth of fresh coffee beans without hassle.
   
3. Information. Beyond the freshness factor, specialty coffee should also offer the customer more information about the product that they are drinking.  This requires that importers pass on information to their customers , the roasters, who in turn pass on this information to the shops and cafes, and they in turn pass on the information to the consumer.