This refers to a modern demand for exceptional quality coffee, both farmed and brewed to a significantly higher than average standard.
Many organisations and activists are working to include strict environmental and social indicators in the definition and grading of specialty coffee.
"[8] Similar positions are often promoted by Fernando Morales-de La Cruz, journalist and founder of Coffee for Change, an organisation fighting against the use of child labour in the coffee industry; the journalist is very active also in showing up how the labelling system of "Fair trade" is often used although poor, unfair economic conditions for farmers.
In a recent interview, at a European Parliament hearing on child labor in cocoa & coffee, Ange Aboa a Reuters correspondent for West & Central Africa said "certifications Fairtrade, UTZ & RainforestAlliance are the biggest scam of the century!".
[9] Morales-de La Cruz stated that "It's unacceptable and illegal that seventy years after signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Europe's 'Fairtrade' coffee, tea & cocoa is grown with slave & child labor.
[12][13] This is perhaps partly due to a long history of espresso consumption, fuelled by large Italian and Greek migrations in the mid-twentieth century.
[19] Despite Asia being traditionally dominated by tea consumption, it is now easy to find specialty coffee shops across many Korean, Chinese and Japanese cities.
[24] Noting Specialty Coffee is very distinct to the traditional Kahwah Al Arabiya which already had a considerable presence in the gulfian market.