A whole bunch of interesting issues.
Why is some coffee good enough for speciality and some isn't?
It clearly isn't just the farmer as Alé has another farm where the coffee isn't good enough. Some parts of the world, Africa in particular, there isn't a farmer anyway as the coffee comes from a wide collection of smallholders. Clearly a farmer who can produce speciality on one farm is more likely to be able to do it on another but there is no guarantee.
Is it the picking/processing? Probably processing for Africa but using Alé as an example again, possibly not. The skills and practices that the owner knows to work are presumably applied everywhere, but don't work everywhere.
Maybe varietals? Again we have an exception this week which is usually used to increase yield at the expense of quality, presumably sold as part of a 'from origin blend' where there is a balance between yield and not letting the quality fall to much. There is a skill in that but presumably at the processing level. Encouraging growers to segregate Catimor is presumably leading to yet more 'choice' at Has Bean. Varietals in Africa? Often a completely unknown and unmanaged mix of heirlooms.
I suspect that the real heroes are the people who process and the people who roast. Processing is something where there is only one shot and it has to start now. A different quality of cherry or different weather can presumably considerably change what has to be done but the skilled processor gets the job done and gets the best green from the cherries. Likewise roasting will take account of slightly different greens where I expect the pattern is set by the roast profile but exactly how much heat and for how long varies from lot to lot.
We then get consistent roasted beans for someone to get wet. I often question how much of a skill that is. Given the same beans, just how much variability is there between one coffee wetter and another?
We did have it confirmed that Steve doesn't know about growing/processing or getting beans wet but enters getting beans wet competitions nevertheless
hmm maybe that's not for me, but not this time! The Catimor from Alé at Finca Argentina has consistently been the best Catimor I've tasted year on year, for years 
so this week on In My Mug I've shared it with all my lovely subscribers to help let everyone know a Catimor can be 
