A Hot Coffee to Warm the Heart
I’ve always enjoyed drinking coffee. Growing up in Minnesota, there were always those cold winter days when a warm brew was just what I needed to take the chill out of my bones. I can remember even as a kid, ice fishing with my dad and having him pour from the hot thermos into a cup so I could warm my hands, gently sipping on it as it cooled.
Growing up, my parents would let us have a cup now and then, but maybe I liked it too much. There was the time when I was about eight or nine, that while I wasn’t looking, my Dad poured some vinegar into my cup. It was all in good fun, but maybe he was giving me a hint not to get too attached to it.
Then there were the times in college with late-night study sessions, where finishing off a pot was par for the evening. But through all these years, I didn’t really pay much attention to the quality of the coffee. Coffee was coffee.
A Coffee Niche in a Tea Culture World
Then we moved to Taiwan, and in the late ’90s, I met a friend who was importing and roasting coffee beans himself. He was a pioneer, and that was when I had my first cup made with a siphon method. My thoughts at the time were, “Wow, this is really good! How is it possible that of all places, Taiwan, having more of a tea culture, could be making such good coffee?”
At that time, I didn’t really delve into the source and methods of this great-tasting coffee. But about 15 years later, another friend who was also roasting coffee beans asked me, “What is the best water to use for making coffee?” As I have mentioned elsewhere, that was the beginning of my association with the SCA. But what exactly is the SCA, and what is its purpose?
Welcome to the Origins of the Specialty Coffee Association
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) was established in 1982 by a small group of coffee professionals seeking a common forum to discuss issues and set quality standards for the specialty coffee trade. In 1998, the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) was similarly formed in London.
In 2017, the SCAA and the SCAE combined forces to form what is now the SCA. By 2016, both organizations had close to 10,000 members combined, and supported a thriving network of volunteer-led chapters across Europe. You can learn more about the SCA and their educational and industry benefits here.
My Go-To Source for Coffee Information
Within the SCA are various professional guilds: the Barista Guild, the Coffee Roasters Guild, and the Coffee Technicians Guild. As an SCA member, you can also choose to join one of these guilds. As I now had two friends who were roasting coffee, I thought I would go ahead and join the Coffee Roasters Guild. I soon learned there was a whole lot more to coffee roasting than I had thought.
Coffee Roasters Guild
Through the Coffee Roasters Guild, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the science of roasting coffee and how roasting can be tailored to achieve a seemingly infinite variety of flavors depending on the bean’s origin and roasting profile. Now I was finally starting to catch on to what my friends were doing with their coffee roasting.
https://crg.coffee/
Coffee Technicians Guild
At the Seattle Specialty Coffee Expo in 2018, I thought I would drop in on some of the Coffee Technicians Guild seminars and see what they had to offer. My focus in the past had been on water filtration, so at numerous trade shows, I had talked with many coffee equipment manufacturers about water quality for coffee equipment. But attending these seminars gave me a whole new perspective from the other side, learning about how the technicians had to manage the care, maintenance, and repair of coffee equipment from an industry perspective. These were the very important, behind-the-scenes people that keep the coffee shops running.
https://coffeetechniciansguild.org/
Barista Guild
But the one guild that really taught me the most was the Barista Guild, because this is where the water meets the bean, and the chemistry of flavor extraction became an instant fascination to me. With my background in biology and chemistry, this all came naturally to me, and I grasped the concepts right away. So now the challenge was, how do I now answer my friend’s question,
“What is the best water to use for making coffee?” The rest of the story is history.
You can learn more about the awesome Barista Guild.
Your Key to Success
For me personally, the Specialty Coffee Association has become my go-to source, keeping me up to date on what is happening in the coffee world. The SCA is an exceptional group of dedicated individuals committed to delivering the best coffee experience for everyone. I sincerely recommend to anyone that if they are interested in making coffee a profession, the Specialty Coffee Association is where they will find the information, education, and community that is going to make them a success.
