We Sell Specialty Coffee
Note: Other companies may use words like “Gourmet” or “Artisan” on their packaging to describe their coffee, but these are just marketing terms that have no actual meaning. They simply want you to pay higher prices for no reason, so don’t be fooled!
What are the grades of coffee?
Specialty Coffee:
-
Highest grade of green coffee beans.
-
Top 3-6% of all coffee produced worldwide.
-
Must meet stringent quality and supply chain transparency standards set by the Specialty Coffee Association.
-
Zero “primary defects” are allowed in a random sample.
Primary defects are things like mold, fungus, significant insect damage, rotten beans, and foreign objects (Not sure about you, but we like our coffee beans to only contain coffee, not sticks and rocks). -
Specialty coffee is usually found at smaller roasting companies (like ours).
Premium Coffee:
-
Second highest grade.
-
Allowed to have up to 8 primary defects per sample.
-
Often used by the larger brands that market themselves as “high-end” (think of brands like the one from Seattle with a big green logo and a weird mermaid). Be aware that most of these large brands commonly mix their premium grade beans with lower grade beans to increase profits.
-
We normally avoid it because it is allowed to contain a “relatively” small number of primary defects like mold, fungus, significant insect damage, rotten beans, etc.
-
In the rare and specific instances that we use Premium Grade beans, they must be “best of grade” and very close to meeting all Specialty Grade requirements. We also add additional screening criteria to ensure that the beans are free from defects like mold and fungus. Based on this, we will clearly label the coffee as “Ultra Premium” so that our customers know exactly what they are purchasing.
Exchange Grade Coffee:
-
Third highest grade.
-
Starting to get sketchy!
-
If you knew how many defects there are in this, you probably wouldn’t drink it.
-
Spoiler Alert: it’s up to 23 primary defects per sample. So, we definitely won’t touch it.
-
These beans are used in commercial coffee blends and are common in supermarkets and fast-food coffee (like that big donut place you pass all the time), as well as instant coffee.
-
Exchange-grade coffee can have a flat, inconsistent flavor due to defects. To mask this, the beans are often used in blends and roasted dark.
Standard Grade Coffee:
-
One word: “Sus!”
-
Standard coffee beans are expected to have anywhere from 24 to 86 full defects per 300g (~2/3 lbs.), so that is a crazy number of defects!
-
Standard-grade coffee is typically used for low-cost coffee blends and instant coffee, and many K-cup type pods.
-
You do you, but we wouldn’t drink this stuff with someone else’s mouth!
Off-Grade Coffee:
-
You probably won’t run into this stuff, but if you do…Run away! That’s all! Just run away!
-
Off-grade coffee beans have 87+ full defects per 300g sample!
-
You might find this in very cheap instant coffee or in instant coffee packets that already contain the creamer and sugar, or other flavorings that mask the taste (sometimes referred to as “3-in-1”). It is also used for “non-food purposes” (we were too scared to find out what that actually means).
* Special Note for Hawaiian coffees:
Hawaiian coffee beans (specifically Kona) have their own grading system overseen by the State Government. Their grades can be very confusing and do not conform to the quality standard set forth by the Specialty Coffee Association. Maybe you can make sense of this strange grading system…
-
Grade 1 is called “Extra Fancy”
-
Grade 2 is called “Fancy”
-
Grade 3 is called “No.1”
-
Grade 4 is called “Select”
-
Grade 5 is called “Prime”
-
Grade 6 is called “Hawaii #3”