What we mean by specialty coffee
For years, specialty coffee was explained almost entirely through scores. The Specialty Coffee Association now offers a broader view: coffee or a coffee experience recognised for distinctive attributes that create additional value. Those attributes may be found in flavour, aroma and mouthfeel, but also in origin, production, processing and the information surrounding the coffee.
Specialty therefore does not describe one flavour. Coffee can be floral and light or chocolate-led and round; it can be espresso, filter or served with milk. What matters is intention, knowledge and the ability to explain what is being offered and why it holds value.
Recognising a café that cares for coffee
You do not need to understand varieties or extraction percentages to recognise care. You can see it when the grinder is adjusted, recipes are weighed, the team tastes what it serves and advice is available without turning every conversation into a compulsory lesson. It is also present when the coffee arrives balanced and attention is given when something needs correcting.
Information should be available, not imposed. Being able to ask about origin, roaster or tasting notes creates transparency, but a good experience also allows someone simply to order coffee and enjoy it. Making specialty approachable means sharing knowledge without using it as a barrier.
Bilbao and an evolving coffee culture
Bilbao has always had places where people meet around a counter. New roasters, methods and ways of working do not erase that culture; they add possibilities. Specialty coffee belongs when it maintains hospitality and conversation while paying closer attention to the product and the people who make it possible.
In the Old Town, that combination meets a neighbourhood of commerce, heritage and hospitality. Tendería is one of the original Seven Streets, connecting the city's memory with its daily activity. Working here reminds us that a contemporary idea does not need to be separated from ordinary life.
How Baristas Club understands it
For us, caring for coffee includes the bean and everything around it: team education, water, grind, recipe, cleaning, cups, music and the way somebody is welcomed. Even exceptional coffee loses meaning if the experience makes a person feel out of place.
That is why Coffee & Education exists alongside the counter. We want to explain what sits behind a cup while leaving everyone free to explore as far as they choose. Specialty coffee can be complex in its journey and simple at the moment of drinking. That coexistence is where we find our way of making it part of Bilbao.