You might have noticed a change in cafes across Australia in recent years. More and more menus are featuring single-origin beans from nations such as Colombia and Kenya, along with tasting notes and flavour profiles, and different brewing styles such as drip filter and pour-over – the telltale signs of specialty coffee.

“On a zero-to-100 scale, anything graded above 80 when purchasing is classed as specialty,” says Anthony Svilicich, state sales manager for Five Senses Coffee.

That’s according to the Specialty Coffee Association’s cupping protocols, but specialty is more than just flavour and bean quality.

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“The meaning of specialty coffee is not only that it tastes amazing – it’s the ethos around it,” says Liza Chehade, owner of Homage Specialty Coffee in Parramatta. “It’s all the people that are doing the hard work – the growing – and [about] making sure the roasters we use are [behaving] ethically.”

The rise of specialty coffee
Chehade and Svilicich have both been brewing and selling coffee for a long time. Chehade opened Homage in honour of a coffee-obsessed brother who passed away from brain cancer. Svilicich had his own series of cafes too, before he went behind the scenes with Five Senses Coffee. Both are well across the changing trends in specialty coffee over the past decade.

For Chehade, the biggest change has been in how coffee tastes, which is determined a long time before it actually hits the cup. “Things have changed by the way people roast,” she says. “From omni-roast to filter roast, people are roasting in a way that allows for both espresso and filter, which is really cool.”

According to Svilicich, this is then reflected in how we’re drinking our coffee. “Different brewing methods – there’s been an increase in that over the years, moving towards filter coffee, cold brew, infused drinks and those kinds of things,” he says.

Both have seen another big trend that starts further afield. An increasingly urgent emphasis on ethical responsibilities – towards both growers and the environment – has shifted how roasters source their beans. Coffee growing can have serious environmental impacts, including deforestation, water pollution and erosion, while predatory buying practices can negatively affect growing communities.

“It’s ensuring that there’s fair pricing – that people are treated well all the way from farm to the coffee being served on the table,” says Svilicich. “There needs to be incentive for [growers] to continue to produce, and the way to do that is for us to pay them ethically, to deal with them ethically and to actually give back to their communities.”

Where to from here?
As the social and environmental responsibilities for specialty coffee producers sharpen, consumers need confidence that their money is going where it should.

“There needs to be more transparency when it comes to the consumer, when they’re choosing to purchase certain kinds of coffee,” says Svilicich.

There are a few things to look for moving forward. “Companies moving towards packaging which is biodegradable, [and] having B Corp certification, which we’re about to finish acquiring,” he says. “Companies that are carbon-neutral or working towards that, and companies that are trying to impact the whole industry in a positive way in everything they do.”

And, as someone who sells specialty coffee on a daily basis, Chehade has one hard truth she says consumers need to accept: coffee won’t stay the same price forever.

“Ethically sourcing and not just stealing from the earth – it makes me a bit confused as to why the price of coffee hasn’t gone up,” she says. In the end, dishing out a little extra cash to ensure you’re supporting ethical coffee (and the people who grow it) is something that we’ll all have to get comfortable with.

“I think it really goes through everyone from roasters to consumers,” Chehade continues. “Just the understanding of, by simply having a coffee, what you’re actually doing for the people overseas with their crop. You’re getting amazing coffee, and these guys are sending their kids to school and getting a better future for everyone.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Five Senses Coffee.