Specialty coffee was a term devised to mean higher levels of green coffeeGreen coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted, ground and prepared as an infusion.: Coffee More quality than average “industrial coffee” or “commercial coffee”. At this point, the term is of limited use, since every multi-national coffee broker opened a “specialty division” and because, under the same term, coffees of highly varying quality, high to low, are imported.

Some say Erna KnutsenErna is known as the first dedicated "Specialty Coffee" importers/brokers in the US ... in fact she coined the term Specialty Coffee! Here bio reads, "After several years in the bay area Erna took a More, the San Francisco coffee broker, coined this term. Some say it was Rod Lazar’s grandfather, Frenchie Lazar. At the time the SCAA was formed, it certainly meant something more than now. And some called this “Gourmet Coffee”