The Brew Blog

A practical guide to the primary flavor categories in specialty coffee — fruity, floral, sweet, chocolatey, roasted — and what produces each one.

What is specialty coffee? It starts at 84 points on the SCA scale. This complete guide covers origins, processing, varietals, tasting, and why competition results matter.

Where coffee comes from is the single most powerful variable shaping your cup. This guide covers every significant coffee-producing origin in the specialty world.

Bolivia produces some of the highest-altitude specialty coffee on earth. Here's why the underdog origin deserves more attention.

Coffee varietal shapes flavor through genetics — even before processing and roasting. Here's how varietal affects what you taste, with concrete examples.

Learn to taste specialty coffee like a professional — the vocabulary, the framework, and the practical techniques for getting more from every cup.