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8 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2018 (August / September) Founding Editor Glenn Anthony John gaj@octobermultimedia.com Managing Editor Dan Bolton dwb@octobermultimedia.com Art Director Somjet Thitasomboon snt@octobermultimedia.com Global Tea Report Peter GW Keen Global Coffee Report Dan Shryock Special Correspondent Sherri Johns Contributing Writers Josh Doyle (Canada) Bethany Haye (Colombia) Alf Kramer (Europe) Sunalini Menon (India) Shem Omanga Oirere (Africa) Kelly Stein (Brazil) Translations (Chinese) Si Chen | Nan Cui Administrative Assistant Sommai Jekaram Subscriptions Malisa Kongkatitum Sales Director Emerson Leonard edl@octobermultimedia.com Director, October Inter Co., Ltd. Boonthin Tubsongkroh brt@octobermultimedia.com STiR c/o October Inter Co. Ltd. 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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission. rna Knutsen will be long remembered as the coffee trader who saw something special in coffee. It was she who coined the term "specialty coffee" in 1974. Knutsen, who passed away in June at 96, was among the first coffee traders to champion the skills of coffee growers and to recognize the benefits of processing techniques leading to the popularity of naturals, honeys, and fermented coffees popular today. In her offerlist she named character- istics inherent in terroir and priced them into transactions. She calculated the value in the cup that made the coffee she traded not just defect-free, but "distinctive." It would be 20 more years before consumers really appreciate what she pioneered. The heavy lifting was done by specialty retailers, specialty roasters, and the Specialty Coffee Association, all of whom understood that gourmet—the term in use at the time, was "marketspeak" and meaningless. Since 1950 respondents to the National Coffee Associa- tion's annual National Coffee Drinking Trends survey have labeled anything that sold for more than 25-cents a cup "gourmet" because it said so, right on the label: Folger's Gourmet Supreme; Hills Bros Premium Gourmet; Maxwell House Gourmet Roast; Eight O'Clock Gour- met Arabica. Coffee has long since replaced tins with plastic tubs, but still clings to gourmet. To truly benefit from their labors growers, importers/exporters, processors, and roasters realized that customers must be taught how to decide for themselves "why" these coffees were special. SCA's definition touches on terroir, processing, and preparation and assigns a minimum cupping score of 80 on its 100-point scale. "Specialty coffees are grown in special and ideal climates, and are distinctive because of their full cup taste and little to no defects. The unique flavors and tastes are a result of the special characteristics and composition of the soils in which they are produced," according to SCA. During the early 1900s, Clarence E. Bickford, the green coffee buyer at Hills Bros. in San Francisco, insisted on blind tastings. He reasoned that when roasters paid a premium for coffee, it should display characteristics evident to consumers. "Consumer perception is critical: after all, the effort put into attaining and preserving qual- ity is meaningless if the consumer cannot perceive it," according to SCA. The payoff has been remarkable. Consumers have increased their per capita spending on coffee by 30% in the past 10 years, expanding sales to $300 billion globally. In the US specialty now accounts for 60% market share, up from 40% in 2010. This means that of the hundreds of millions of cups consumed daily 6 in 10 were specialty brew. Specialty coffee drinkers average three cups per day. In 1999 only 9% of adults in the US were drinking spe- cialty coffee daily. During the past 17 years, the number of past-day drinkers who say they "occasionally" drink specialty coffee has remained steady at more than 65% of adults. The tea industry has well defined standards for plucking, processing, and grading tea. Tasters can describe at length the characteristics in the cup. The most gifted can discern what makes a prize winning tea, but tea still lacks a widely accepted definition useful to consumers. So, let's create one. The International Specialty Tea Association (www. specialtyteaassociation.org) recently posted its definition of specialty tea. Give it a read and share your thoughts in the comments comments section that follows. Defining Specialty Tea