The Art Of Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee scores 80 or above on the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale. Every coffee we roast at Indigo scores 85 or above. That's not a marketing line, it's a grading system, and it's the difference between a cup that's just fine and one you actually remember.

What Makes a Coffee "Specialty"

Graders cup coffee blind and score it against fixed criteria: aroma, acidity, body, flavour, aftertaste. A score of 80 or above means the coffee earns its place through quality, not through blending tricks or a familiar name on the bag. Below that line, coffee gets graded on defects instead of character.

Specialty coffee also means traceability. We know which farm TEMPERANCE and COURAGE come from, who grew it, and how it was processed. That's not true of the coffee on a supermarket shelf.

From Farm to Roaster

Altitude, soil and climate shape the bean before it's ever picked. Processing then decides how those characteristics show up in the cup: washed coffee tends toward clean and bright, natural process leans into fruit and body, honey process sits somewhere between the two.

Roasting is where a lot of specialty coffee gets undone. Push the roast too dark and you lose the character the farm and process built in, replacing it with generic roast flavour. We roast to bring that character out, not to cover it up. Every batch is roasted to order in Manchester and shipped within days, never left sitting on a shelf.

What You'll Actually Taste

TEMPERANCE is Colombian, chocolatey and nutty, built to be the easy every-morning cup. COURAGE is Ethiopian Guji, natural process, with orange marmalade and redcurrant running through it. Same 85+ standard, completely different character, because that's what specialty coffee is meant to do: taste like where it came from.

Brewing at Home

Getting started doesn't take much. A burr grinder and a kettle you can control cover most of what matters. Grind fresh, just before you brew, and use water just off the boil rather than fully boiling.

Start with TEMPERANCE if you want something easy and familiar. Move to COURAGE once you want a cup that surprises you. Either way, brew within a few weeks of the roast date on the bag. That's where the freshness actually lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "specialty coffee" actually mean?

It means the coffee scored 80 or above on the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale, graded blind against criteria like aroma, acidity and flavour. Every coffee at Indigo scores 85 or above.

Why does roast date matter?

Coffee loses aromatic complexity over time. A roast date tells you how fresh what you're drinking actually is, unlike a "best by" date a year out, which only tells you when it'll spoil.

Where is Indigo's coffee roasted?

In Manchester, on a 1kg roaster, roasted to order after you place your order rather than in advance and left on a shelf.

Ready to taste the difference? Shop TEMPERANCE, shop COURAGE, or browse the full range.