Someone asked me recently what slow coffee is, and my explanation was simple: it is what you get when coffee is handled with meticulous attention to detail at every step from the farm to your cup. It is the triumph of quality over quantity. It is handpicking and hand-sorting to create nearly flawless micro-lots. It is the choice to avoid shortcuts in husbandry, picking, processing, drying, milling, roasting, and brewing. It is the acknowledgment that coffee quality is fragile and needs to be treated with a delicate touch in order to reach its real potential.
Watts (from Intelligentsia) on the Next Decade