Is It Even Specialty Coffee Anymore? | ROHAN COOKE & BEN BICKNELL!

What actually makes coffee “specialty”?

Is it an 80+ cup score? A traceable farm? The flavour, the barista, the ethics, the hospitality, or is it all just vibes?

In this episode, Rohan and Ben open one enormous can of worms and ask whether “specialty coffee” still means what we think it means. They trace the term from its original definition through the coffee-price crisis, fair trade, direct trade and the rise of third-wave coffee.

Then things get messy.

Can Starbucks technically be specialty coffee? Does pre-batched espresso count? If an automated machine makes a more consistent drink, is that less specialty than something made by hand? And when someone pays $6 for a latte, what are they actually paying for?

There’s no neat manifesto at the end of this one. Just a much bigger conversation about quality, craft, traceability, flavour and what we want specialty coffee to stand for now.

If you’re new here (welcome), our show dives into some of the best coffee conversations on the internet, but we will always remind ourselves at the end of the day: It’s Just Coffee!

CHAPTERS!

00:00 What the Hell Is Specialty Coffee?

03:16 Meet Rohan, Ben and Liam

03:38 APAX LAB

04:17 The Technical Definition of Specialty Coffee

08:27 The SCA’s New Definition

11:50 Why This Conversation Matters Now

14:21 Coffee Prices and Shrinking Café Margins

17:52 Where “Specialty Coffee” Came From

19:08 The Coffee Crisis That Changed Everything

21:59 Fair Trade vs Direct Trade

26:13 Cup of Excellence and Third-Wave Coffee

28:21 Is Starbucks Specialty Coffee?

31:54 Specialty Coffee Was Never Just One Thing

32:59 What Specialty Means Across the Supply Chain

37:31 What Does It Mean to the Customer?

39:56 Automation, Pre-Batching and the Future of Craft

43:39 Does the “Specialty” Label Still Work?

45:05 What Are You Actually Paying $6 For?

47:30 What Specialty Coffee Means to Us

50:46 Does the Definition Survive 2026?

53:27 Where Does Specialty Coffee Go Next?

55:57 Final Thoughts

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Proudly sponsored by:

APAX LAB: apaxlab.com

Riverina Fresh: riverinafresh.com.au

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