Specialty coffee beans are green beans that meet an extremely high quality standard. A green coffee bean is considered special if it receives a grade of more than 80 on the SCAA scale, which is a grading system used by experts to categorise beans as special or commercial. 

Although not many people were aware of specialty coffee beans in the past, the US specialty coffee market started to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the high level of coffee consumption during that time, roasters began concentrating on finding and roasting specialty green coffee beans. The hunt for specialty green coffee also originated as a result of consumer demand for coffee that meets extremely high standards, or specialty coffee. This further encouraged roasters to search for something special and distinctive. 

Erna Knutsen, a native of Norway, is credited with bringing up the concept of specialty coffee in the USA. Although she had a difficult beginning to life, her perseverance and idea to introduce specialty green coffee to the United States proved to be highly successful. 

One of the first people in Europe to import, market, and sell specialty coffee beans in the early 1980s was the Dutch businessman and coffee enthusiast Norbert Schulp. In an effort to raise the calibre of the coffee his small farmers were growing, he began importing beans from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The Specialty Coffee Association of Japan (SCAJ), which was founded in 1996, was among the first organisations in Asia to champion the idea of specialty coffee. It also contributed to the standardisation of the term’s definition and the advancement of premium coffee brewing and production techniques.

Specialty coffee’s growth and promotion outside of the US has been greatly aided by these people and organisations, among many others.