What’s better than organic coffee? Organic, specialty grade coffee!

You probably already know a little bit about why organic coffee is good for you. When you sip coffee brewed from organic beans, you can bask in the knowledge that people in the communities who grow your coffee beans are not exposed to dangerous chemicals and that the sustainability of the environment is not being damaged. It means synthetic pesticides are prohibited on the farm, which greatly reduces the chance of residues in your cup.

You can rest assured that there are fewer toxins standing in the way of your daily cup. Many customers even choose an organic coffee subscription to make sure they never miss out on these benefits. In fact, demand for organic coffee is rising rapidly around the world — demand for organic coffee has grown steadily over the past decade. It’s clear that more people are recognizing the health and environmental benefits of choosing organic.

But what if organic coffee could be improved even further?

As it turns out, Specialty Grade coffee is far better than organic in more ways than one.

Yes: organic certification tells you the coffee was grown without prohibited synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Specialty grade is a quality designation based on green-bean defect counts and a cupping score of 80 or more under Specialty Coffee Association protocols; it is not a certification and does not include contaminant testing, which is why Purity tests separately. Specialty grading goes further by following the beans further along the process all the way into your mug. Specialty grade coffee is grown in ideal climates and the beans themselves have very few defects and are graded and cupped to a published standard.

Only a small share of the world’s coffee is organically grown, and a smaller share still is specialty grade organic.

Grown in ideal climates

To qualify as specialty grade, the coffee beans must have been grown in ideal climate and soil conditions, handpicked, and hand sorted. Specialty grade arabica is grown at the right altitude and climate and picked at peak ripeness (the SCA now also has a fine robusta protocol). This always means over 2,000 feet in altitude and often between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. Moisture content of the beans must be between 9–13%, which helps avoid mold and mycotoxin development as well as the fermentation that leads to kidney-damaging Ochratoxin A. Some countries that are known for frequently producing specialty grade coffee include Colombia, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia.

Bean Shape and Quality

Specialty grade status is only given to beans picked under the right conditions with “near zero” defects. For example, no “quakers” are allowed in the batch, which is the name for unripened beans. Beans that are too large or too small (within 0–5% of a predetermined size) are removed by hand, as are chipped beans. There also cannot be “foxy” beans, which have adopted the orange color of the coffee berry and are a sign of sourness.

We know what you’re thinking. What difference could the shape of a coffee bean possibly make? Turns out an awful lot!

Think about it: when you cook vegetables, you want all the pieces to be about the same size so they end up cooking evenly. The same goes for when you roast coffee beans. If a green coffee bean is misshapen or underripe, it won’t roast to the same level as the other beans. This could lead to some of the beans being over-roasted or even burned. Burned coffee beans develop compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have been proven in lab studies to cause cancer in rats. That’s why uniformity of the chosen beans is important to flavor.

Flavor, Aroma, and Defects

Once the beans have been harvested and hand-selected, it’s time for more testing by members of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Designated experts called “cuppers” test a very carefully measured ratio of coffee, roasted for a maximum of eight minutes after being carefully stored in a cool, dry place. Each coffee is tested by multiple people both right after being brewed and after the coffee has had time to cool. They taste fragrance/aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, uniformity, sweetness, cup cleanliness and for any defects that may prevent the coffee from qualifying. Defects include off flavors like sour or phenolic (which means the coffee tastes a bit like acetone). After rating all of these different categories, these coffee professionals tally up the grand total, and if it has a score over 80--voila! It earns the coveted title of Specialty Grade.

Purity Coffee starts with organic specialty grade coffee as it’s baseline. While many coffee companies choose to use specialty coffee because of its superior flavor, Purity selects it because it’s the coffee most likely to be free of mold, Ochratoxin A, and other contaminants. We make all of our decisions with health benefits being the primary focus, and we go even further than the SCA by also testing for mold, pesticides, and other contaminants throughout the process. We at Purity tick all the boxes when it comes to health, and thanks to the specialty grading, you can be sure that a vetted, delightful flavor awaits you as well.