Specialty coffee can have a wide range of natural flavors depending on the specific variety of coffee beans, where it was grown, how it was processed, and how it was roasted. However, some common characteristics of specialty coffee include:

• Aroma: Specialty coffee often has a strong, pleasant aroma that can be floral, fruity, nutty, or spicy depending on the region.

• Acidity: Specialty coffee is known for its bright, complex acidity that can range from mild to intense. Acidity in coffee is not the same as the sourness that comes from over-extraction or stale coffee.

• Flavor: Specialty coffee can have a wide range of flavors, depending on the variety of coffee beans and how it was processed and roasted. Some common flavors include chocolate, caramel, citrus, berry, floral, and nutty.

• Body: Specialty coffee typically has a smooth, delicate texture that is not overly heavy or thin.

• Finish: Specialty coffee often has a long, pleasant aftertaste that can be sweet, nutty, or fruity.

Overall, specialty coffee is appreciated for its complex and unique flavors, as well as the care and attention that goes into producing it.

You can safely assume that all specialty coffee is mostly light to medium roast by default unless the roasting level is specifically stated.

This is because most of the prized flavor notes which we value are lost during lengthy durations of roasting.

Specialty coffee usually has a lighter body and also a non-bitter, tea-like flavor, this is the opposite of the traditional full-bodied and bitter dark roasted counterparts.

Specialty coffee can also have a vibrant or juicy acidity to it depending on its origin. Some acidity is present in all coffees by nature and is only broken down during the dark roasting process. This acidity is not to be confused with the sourness of stale coffee.

The familiar "Coffee" flavor may not be obvious in light-roasted coffee.

The roasted flavor we associated with storebought coffee is derived mostly from the caramelization of sugars and Maillard reactions as a product of the roasting process, not from its origin. You can pretty much roast any coffee enough, regardless of its grading to create the "coffee" flavor which is why cheaper robustas make an amazing choice for dark roasts.

If this is your first time trying specialty coffee, it is good to have an open mind about your existing expectations about how coffee should taste.

We believe that lightly roasted coffee is the best way to highlight the distinct characteristics of the region you are purchasing your coffee from.

Yes!

Some of our single-origins taste really good as espresso coffee but they require good equipment, patient calibration, and some experience with dialing in your espresso.

To brew specialty coffee at home with an espresso machine, there are a few things you need to take note of:

1. You will need a very good burr grinder as some specialty-grade coffee can be super light roasted have higher densities. This makes it harder to grind for machines with lower power specifications.
2. Your grinder should not be multi-step but allow you to make micro-adjustments as even an mm difference in grind size can affect how the espresso tastes.
3. Fresh light-roasted coffee espresso shots will run much faster than dark-roasted shots and that is totally fine. ( Start with a general recipe of 2 times the weight in 20-25 seconds shot time and adjust from there ).
4. The risk of an over-extraction of bitter flavors is also rare in our coffee as bitterness is a product of dark-roasted coffee.

If this sounds too complicated, we recommend brewing your coffee with our Yasumi Press instead which as immersion brewing is a fool-proof and practical way to achieve the similar results you find at specialty cafes without the cafe-grade equipment.