The dust is settled, the merger is final: the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe have joined forces into a single entity, dubbed simply the Specialty Coffee Association, or SCA. This new coffee Borg will be tasked with putting on the largest coffee trade shows and competitions on earth from now until Trump nukes the planet from space (much to the delight of most of the merger’s opposition).
Just one question remains: how do you pronounce SCA? Under the old regime, SCAA was simply “Ess-See-Eh-Eh”โor was it? In Europe, it was common practice to hear SCAA pronounced as “Ska“. So too was there some confusion on how to pronounce SCAEโin America we spelled it out phonetically, as “Ess-See-Eh-Eeee”, but over in Europe they’d call it “Skye“.
Skye and Ska, phonetics and colloquialisms. It’s confusing for sure, but thankfully that’s all over now. There’s just one global coffee organization running the show, and we must learn to pronounce its name correctly.
You pronounce it “Schwa”.
Yes, that’s correctโSCA is pronounced “Schwa“.
“SCHWAAAAAAAAH.”
Here’s a handy pronunciation video in case you’re still confused.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you at the Schwaย Global Specialty Coffee Expo this April in Seattle!
