Specialty Grade Coffee
Specialty grade coffee
There is coffee. And there is specialty coffee.
Most coffee in the world is bought and sold as a commodity, traded in bulk by origin and price. A small share of it is different: carefully grown, carefully picked and carefully graded, then tasted and scored by trained professionals before it is ever roasted. That coffee is called specialty grade, and it is the only coffee we put in a Marnka & Co. bag.
What specialty grade means
Maka · fire
Specialty grade is a quality standard set by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). To earn it, a coffee must score 80 points or more out of 100 when tasted by certified coffee tasters, known as Q Graders, and pass a strict inspection of the green (unroasted) beans.
Coffee that falls short of that standard is sold as commercial grade. It is what most people drink every day, and it is often roasted darker to cover what the beans lack.
How coffee is graded
Ukarai · something seriously good
1.The green bean inspection
A 350g sample of green beans is laid out and examined bean by bean.
No primary defects
These are serious faults such as black or sour beans, mould, or foreign matter like stones and sticks.
No more than five secondary defects
These are smaller faults such as broken, chipped or insect-damaged beans.
Even moisture and size
Beans need to sit at around 9 to 13% moisture and be consistent in size, so they roast evenly.
No quakers
Quakers are unripe beans that stay pale when roasted and taste papery and flat.
2.The cupping
The coffee is then roasted lightly, ground and brewed in a set way called cupping. Trained tasters assess it blind, on its own merits, for:
- Fragrance and aroma
- Flavour
- Aftertaste
- Acidity
- Body
- Balance
- Sweetness
- Clean cup
- Uniformity
Only coffees that score 80 or above are specialty grade.
Why it tastes different
Wadhlu · Country
Ripe cherries
Specialty coffee is picked when the coffee cherry is ripe, which gives natural sweetness rather than bitterness.
Care at every step
From growing and processing to storage and shipping, every stage is handled to protect flavour.
Traceable
Specialty coffee can be traced back to where it was grown, not lost in a bulk blend.
Roasted to show, not hide
Because the beans are sound, they can be roasted to bring out their character rather than to mask faults.
The result is a cup you can taste the difference in: sweeter, cleaner and more layered, with notes like milk chocolate, stone fruit, caramel or citrus that come from the coffee itself.
Specialty grade at Marnka & Co.
Waangara · tomorrow
Every one of our five blends is specialty-grade Arabica, roasted fresh in Naarm/Melbourne by a third-generation Italian-Australian roasting family. Each is named in the Arabana language and carries a story from Country.
When we entered the 2026 Golden Bean Australasian Championships, our coffee was judged the same way: blind, on flavour alone.
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