What's the Difference Between Specialty Coffee Drinks and Pour-Over Coffee? What Does Specialty Coffee Mean? Are Specialty Coffee Drinks Considered Coffee?

When it comes to coffee shops today, the coffee products they sell are mainly divided into three major categories! One is the classic Italian coffee, another is single-origin coffee that embodies the specialty concept, and the third is creative specialty coffee! As everyone knows, FrontStreet Coffee's stores only sell the first two categories. So whenever passing customers enter the shop to ask if there are specialty coffees for sale, FrontStreet Coffee can only politely decline.

But even so, specialty coffee is still worth exploring, after all, it's the "rising star" in the coffee world. So, what exactly is specialty coffee?

What is Specialty Coffee?

The term "Specialty Coffee" originates from the Chinese translation of "Signature Drink" in WBC competitions. "Signature" means signature or hallmark, and "Drink" means beverage. Combined, we can simply understand it as a distinctive beverage rich in personality. Unlike the specialty concept that emphasizes coffee flavors, specialty coffee focuses more on personal creativity and individual understanding of coffee. Each specialty coffee will have unique styles and labels due to different creators, offering an alternative全新 experience. It's somewhat similar to cocktails, but uses coffee as the base, then adds different ingredients to create collisions with coffee, resulting in unexpected flavors. Examples like the preserved plum coffee, osmanthus coffee, and clarified coffee that FrontStreet Coffee shared a few days ago all fall within the category of specialty coffee.

Compared to specialty coffee, specialty coffee doesn't require overly complex tasting methods, so even beginners can directly feel what specialty coffee wants to express. Because of this, compared to traditional coffees, specialty coffee has a broader audience. Besides traditional materials like milk and syrup, alcohol, fruits, fruit juices, flowers, tea, sparkling water, spices, etc., can all be used as materials to blend with coffee. Of course, these materials are considered relatively conservative, and there are many bolder materials available, which FrontStreet Coffee won't list one by one here (excluding those materials added just for sensationalism).

And because specialty coffee emphasizes the combination of textures and flavors between different ingredients, it can be said that specialty coffee is a display work of the imagination of baristas/coffee shops. Each cup of specialty coffee represents the person/shop's unique understanding and creation of this beverage. As specialty coffee becomes more and more popular, there are now coffee shops that mainly sell specialty coffee products. But at the same time, controversy has also been rising with the increase in popularity. Because there are no limitations, some coffee shops will specifically reduce the proportion of coffee flavor in the overall composition to pursue balance between flavors. And because coffee is the subject in the term "specialty coffee," controversy arises: "Can a specialty coffee without coffee flavor still be considered coffee?" (Everyone can leave their opinions in the comments section)

So let's set that aside for now! Based on FrontStreet Coffee's exploration of specialty coffees from various coffee shops in recent years, we've summarized some development ideas for specialty coffee to share with everyone for reference.

1. Highlight/Extend the Original Flavors of Coffee Beans

Simply put, it's about creating specialty coffee around the flavors of a specific coffee bean. For example, Colombia's División Sidra is a bean with obvious fruity notes, and the coffee extracted from it will have a rich grape juice sensation.

So, using this as a base, we can add other types of fruit juices or syrups to transform it into a coffee with complex fruit flavors, and so on.

2. Set a Theme

This is FrontStreet Coffee's favorite approach! We can first set a theme, then use related elements around this theme to create specialty coffee! Just like in the article "Osmanthus Specialty," FrontStreet Coffee used autumn as the theme and incorporated osmanthus into the coffee making, and so on~

3. "Reset Version" of Traditional Products

This is simple! We can deconstruct traditional coffees, for example, Americano and latte can be deconstructed into espresso and water, espresso and milk. Then we innovate on these materials, for example, we can change the coffee beans from blend to SOE, then change the milk to coconut milk, soy milk, nut milk... or change the water to orange juice, lemonade, sparkling water, etc~

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