SOMA Magazine SOMA Spring Fashion Issue Apr 15 | Seite 87

handcrafted coffees through tastings by an independent panel
of 34 professionals hand-picked from the worlds of wine, cuisine, and of course, coffee. This panel must unanimously give
the roasted coffee beans a five-star rating. How do these professionals judge the beans? Some check on the visual aspect.
No broken pieces are allowed in the mix, and each bean must
be flawless. There is much care taken at the harvest in sorting
the beans and only the top one percent are ultimately chosen.
The sommeliers and coffee experts on the panel are expected
to use a French press with a pour over, as drip is not considered
an optimal method for extracting maximum flavor from coffee.
Some of the chefs on the panel will judge by eating the bean
itself. According to Scott, these un-brewed beans must embody
perfect flavor, displaying ideal richness and complexity without
any acrid notes.
Even within the Cup of Luxury brand, there are echelons.
Black Label, for example, is “one of the most beautiful coffees
we have.” Scott waxes lyrical as he describes the secret blend’s
aroma of dark chocolate and dark berry as well as a vanilla component, which he specifies is reminiscent of “Spanish vanilla.”
And the taste? “Oh my God. It’s a very distinct flavor.” Beyond
Black Label is Cup of Luxury’s Paramount blend. It is, in Scott’s
words, “an outrageous coffee that would be beyond 100 points

on the hundred point scale, because it’s so complex, rich, clean
and smooth.” Like most fine wines, Cup of Luxury’s coffees
are not single-source, but rather expertly concocted blends.
Continuing with the wine analogy, Scott, who recently moved
to Sonoma, compares the Paramount blend to “a Chateau Lafitte
or a 97 Screaming Eagle Cab Sauv.”
Not only is each offering custom blended, it is also custom
roasted at the time of each order in order to ensure maximum
freshness and expression of flavor. It would be difficult if not
impossible to provide such quality with a traditional business
model, so Bryan-David Scott has launched an extremely exclusive coffee club. Other than sampling it at very high-end venues
or at elite events, joining the coffee club is the only way to enjoy
Cup of Luxury coffee. There are 1800 memberships available
worldwide, and these cost almost $6000 a year. This makes
it difficult for an average person to gain access, but not for the
celebrities, chefs, and higher-end consumers who care about
their coffee quality, and who are Cup of Luxury’s target clients. Is
Bryan-David Scott worried about the seemingly Sisyphean task
of converting consumers to real luxury coffee, especially with
numerous emerging coffee brands nipping at his heels? His past
as a boxer has clearly shaped his approach to business. “I am a
fighter,” he says. “I do my best under pressure.”
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