It's not marketing. It's a technical distinction based on objective criteria.
Specialty coffee is coffee that scores 80 points or more out of 100 in a cupping session conducted according to the SCA protocol — the Specialty Coffee Association. To get there, the grain cannot have defects, it has to come from a specific harvest, from an identifiable area and producer, and it has to have been processed carefully at every stage: from harvesting to roasting.
Commercial coffee doesn't follow that protocol. It uses beans from different harvests and origins mixed together, accepts imperfections, and the roasting is usually intense to homogenize the result and mask what isn't working. It's not necessarily bad—it's a different product with a different objective: large-scale consistency and a low price.
The difference in cup size is real and noticeable. You don't need to be an expert to perceive it.
At San Agustín, we work exclusively with specialty coffee. Not because it's a label, but because it's the only coffee we're interested in roasting.
