Is It Even Specialty Coffee Anymore? | ROHAN COOKE & BEN BICKNELL!
What actually makes coffee “specialty”?
Is it an 80+ cup score? A traceable farm? The flavour, the barista, the ethics, the hospitality, or is it all just vibes?
In this episode, Rohan and Ben open one enormous can of worms and ask whether “specialty coffee” still means what we think it means. They trace the term from its original definition through the coffee-price crisis, fair trade, direct trade and the rise of third-wave coffee.
Then things get messy.
Can Starbucks technically be specialty coffee? Does pre-batched espresso count? If an automated machine makes a more consistent drink, is…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.