Connoisseurs, however, believe that coffee making is an art and, like the grape of a fine wine, the coffee bean should be nurtured from tree to processing to the final beverage in a cup.

To educate the palates of a growing number of disillusioned coffee drinkers, a group of enthusiasts have set up the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, which hopes to revive coffee's sagging image by showing what a diverse and trendy drink it has become.

"Consumers should learn to appreciate high quality coffees as they appreciate high quality wines," Alf Kramer, the association's president, told Reuters.

"Speciality coffees are unique niche products. They have personalities that you either love or hate depending on taste."

Speciality coffees are restricted to certain areas and as the name describes are not the run of the mill commodity coffee. Java, Sumatra andSulawasi from Indonesia and Malabar from India fall into the speciality coffee category, while Jamaica's Blue Mountain is the world's most expensive bean, retailing in Norway at around $200 per kilo (2.2lb), compared with Java at $20-25 per kg and commodity green coffee at $10-12 per kg.

Other types are found in Latin America -- such as Brazil, Costa Rica -- and in Africa.

Coffee consumption has generally seen a slow decline in recent years as younger generations have turned to more convenient and highly advertised soft drinks.

In Norway, consumption declined seven percent in 1997 to 9.7kg per capita, a trend which continues in 1998. Speciality coffees, however, while only having one percent of the Norwegian market, have shown extraordinary growth from 30 percent per year to 30 percent per quarter so far in 1998.

"The market here will very soon double, this is reflected in the number of coffee bars springing up. This tiny country with 4.5 million people will probably have 300 to 400 coffee bars within18 months," Kramer said.

The concept of speciality coffees was reborn in the United States, where coffee bars have mushroomed and are expected to number more than 10,000 before 2000.

"The funny thing is that the coffee bar was originally Italian, but so was pizza. Pizza has been reinvented by the Americans and shipped back to the Italians and that's exactly what is happening in the specialty coffee area."

Europe has a long tradition of enjoying fine coffees, but Europeans have not been very good at organising, marketing and educating. They have been overrun by the industrial lower quality products," Kramer said.

Speciality coffees took off in America around 10 years ago and now account for around 15 per cent of the total coffee market. Kramer says the same trend is taking place in Britain as well as Norway and strong growth is expected in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

He estimated that speciality coffee could take three to five per cent of the total European market by the nextdecade.

"Suddenly there are a variety of products on offer to consumers, who are discovering new tastes. They are not only finding the Indonesian, fine Indian or Central American coffees, they are discovering the pleasures of expresso, cafe latte, capuccino, cafe mocha -- it's a new beverage culture," he said.

To promote the growth, the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe believes "quality in the cup" is of utmost importance.

For this reason it wants to move away from a "horizontal" membership, where roaster's associations are reserved for roasters and trading organisations for traders, and introduce a vertical approach.

"If we want to have quality in the cup we must go back as far as the farmer. We want (as members) producing countries, exporters, warehouses, roasters, even down to the single coffee bar because they are all parts of the chain in creating a good beverage and if one of them fails, the beverage will fail," Kramer said.

He does not see the higher price of speciality coffees as arestriction. "People are willing to pay a higher price if they get a product with a personality. Speciality coffees are not aiming at the mainstream market. Price is not discussed, we are aiming at quality," he said.

"The main challenge will be to ensure that fine coffees are available on the world market as the market develops. It is also a challenge to stop people moving into the market who are only in it for a quick buck; those who open a speciality coffee bar with no education or training."

The association, formally established on June 5, funded its inception by asking market players to contribute a 500 euro ($455 based on an ECU exchange rate of one to one) interest free loan. It now has 55 so-called "pioneer" members and 200 registered members -- from all European Union countries, Norway, Russia, Croatia, Iceland and Israel -- who pay a flat 100 Euro membership.

Some of the money will support educational programmes, "to teach marketing, product knowledge and to learn to describe coffee as youwould a wine", Kramer said.