Third-wave coffee

Third-wave coffee is a movement in coffee marketing emphasizing high quality. Beans are typically sourced from individual farms and are roasted more lightly to bring out their distinctive flavors.[1] Though the term was coined in 1999,[2] the approach originates in the 1970s, with roasters such as the Coffee Connection.[3][4]

History

The term "third-wave coffee" is generally attributed to the coffee professional Trish Rothgeb, who used the term in a 2003 article,[5] alluding to the three waves of feminism.[6] However, the specialty coffee broker and author, Timothy J. Castle, had already used the term in an article (Coffee's Third Wave) that he wrote for the Dec 1999 / Jan 2000 issue of Tea & Coffee Asia, a magazine which is no longer in publication. Some opinionated background and a link to a pdf of the article can be found on Castle's blog, Coffee Curmudgeon. [7] The first mention in the mainstream media was in 2005, in a National Public Radio piece about barista competitions.[8]

United States

In the first wave of coffee, coffee consumers generally did not differentiate by origin or beverage type. Instant coffee, grocery store canned coffee, and diner coffee were all hallmarks of first wave coffee. First wave coffee focuses on low price and consistent taste. Many restaurants offered free refills.

The second wave of coffee is generally credited to Peet's Coffee & Tea of Berkeley, California, which in the late 1960s began artisanal sourcing, roasting, and blending with a focus on highlighting countries of origin and their signature dark roast profile. Peet's Coffee inspired the founders of Starbucks of Seattle, Washington. The second wave of coffee introduced the concept of different origin countries to coffee consumption, beyond a generic cup of coffee. Fueled in large part by market competition between Colombian coffee producers and coffee producers from Brazil through the 1960s, coffee roasters highlighted flavor characteristics that varied depending on what countries coffees came from. While certain origin countries grew to be prized among coffee enthusiasts and professionals, the world's production of high-altitude grown arabica coffee, grown in countries within the tropical zone, became sought-after as each country had particular flavor profiles that were considered interesting and desirable. In addition to country of origin, the second wave of coffee introduced coffee-based beverages to the wider coffee-consuming world, particularly those traditional to Italy made with espresso.

Third-wave coffee is often associated with the concept of 'specialty coffee,' referring either to specialty grades of green (raw and unroasted) coffee beans (distinct from commercial grade coffee), or specialty coffee beverages of high quality and craft.[9]

United Kingdom

In the late twentieth century, instant coffee dominated the UK market.[10] Inspired by the example of Starbucks, Seattle Coffee Company opened in London in 1995, opening over 50 stores before being taken over by Starbucks in 1998.[11] Flat White, an early third-wave café, opened in 2005[10] and James Hoffmann's third-wave roastery Square Mile opened in 2008.[11]

From 2007 to 2009, the World Barista Championship was won by Londoners, starting with Hoffmann, and the 2010 edition of the competition was hosted in London. Hoffmann has since come to be regarded as a pioneer in the third-wave coffee movement in the UK, with The Globe and Mail describing him as "the godfather of London's coffee revolution".[12][13][14][15]

Use of the term

The third-wave of coffee has been chronicled by publications such as The New York Times,[16][17][18] LA Weekly,[1][19][20] Los Angeles Times,[21][22][2] La Opinión[23] and The Guardian.[24]

In March 2008, the food critic Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly defined the third wave of coffee:

The first wave of American coffee culture was probably the 19th-century surge that put Folgers on every table, and the second was the proliferation, starting in the 1960s at Peet's and moving smartly through the Starbucks grande decaf latte, of espresso drinks and regionally labeled coffee. We are now in the third wave of coffee connoisseurship, where beans are sourced from farms instead of countries, roasting is about bringing out rather than incinerating the unique characteristics of each bean, and the flavor is clean and hard and pure.[1]

The earlier term "specialty coffee" was coined in 1974, and refers narrowly to high-quality beans scoring 80 points or more on a 100-point scale.[25]

Australia
See also: Coffee in Australia

The third wave of coffee has been popular in Australia. Melbourne is known as the "capital of coffee" with its many cafes.[26]

Current status

Across the US and Canada, there are many third-wave roasters, and some stand-alone coffee shops or small chains that roast their own coffee. There are a few larger businesses, more prominent in roasting than in operating – the "Big Three of Third Wave Coffee"[27][28] are Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea of Chicago; Stumptown Coffee Roasters of Portland, Oregon; and Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, North Carolina, all of which engage in direct trade sourcing. Intelligentsia has seven bars – four in Chicago, three in Los Angeles, together with one "lab" in New York.[29] Stumptown has 11 bars – five bars in Portland, one in Seattle, two in New York, one in Los Angeles, one in Chicago, and one in New Orleans.[30] Counter Culture has eight regional training centers – that do not function as retail stores – one in each of: Chicago, Atlanta, Asheville, Durham, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By comparison, Starbucks has over 23,000 cafes worldwide as of 2015.[31]

Both Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea and Stumptown Coffee Roasters were acquired by Peet's Coffee & Tea (itself part of JAB Holding Company) in 2015.[31] At that time, Philz Coffee (headquartered in San Francisco), Verve Coffee Roasters (headquartered in Santa Cruz, California) and Blue Bottle Coffee (headquartered in Oakland, California) were also considered major players in third-wave coffee.[31]

In 2014, Starbucks invested around $20 million in a coffee roastery and tasting room in Seattle, targeting the third-wave market.[31] Starbucks' standard cafes use automated espresso machines which are faster and require less training than conventional espresso machines used by third-wave competitors.[31]

See also

References
  1. Jonathan Gold (March 12, 2008). "La Mill: The Latest Buzz". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008.
  2. "Trish Rothgeb coined 'third wave' — and is now looking toward coffee's future". Los Angeles Times. 2019-10-04. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  3. John J. Thompson, Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate: Crafting a Handmade Faith in a Mass-Market World, 2015, ISBN 0310339405, chapter "Beyond Fair Trade": "George [Howell]'s influence can be found in all aspects of the Third Wave Coffee renaissance"
  4. Janelle Nanos, "George Howell Coffee: Back to the Grind", Boston Magazine, November 27, 2012: "the 'third wave,' who fetishize coffee the way oenophiles do a grand cru—and whom Howell himself is largely responsible for inspiring"
  5. Trish R Skeie (Rothgeb) (Spring 2003). "Norway and Coffee". The Flamekeeper. Archived from the original on October 11, 2003.
  6. "The Waves of Feminism & Coffee – Tamper Tantrum". Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  7. Castle, Timothy (January 23, 2016). "The Future of Specialty Coffee and the Next Wave". CoffeeTalk. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  8. Stuart Cohen (March 10, 2005). "Coffee Barista Preps for National Competition". NPR.
  9. "What is Third Wave Coffee?, 2019" Perfect Daily Grind
  10. Buranyi, Stephen (20 June 2020). "How London became a city of flat-white drinkers". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  11. Eldridge, Cory (6 April 2015). "London: The Once and Future Coffee Capital". Fresh Cup Magazine. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  12. Collins, Robert (24 September 2015). "Getting a taste of London's buzzing coffee culture". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  13. Cohen, Major (2021). Coffee for Dummies. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. ISBN 9781119679042.
  14. Mridul, Anay (2019-07-18). "Profile: James Hoffmann on his career, talking chains, coffee preferences and Brexit". The Grammatical Nerd. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  15. "An Interview With James Hoffmann, Author Of The World Atlas Of Coffee". sprudge.com. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  16. Hannah Wallace (May 29, 2008). "Do I Detect a Hint of ... Joe?". The New York Times.
  17. Gregory Dicum (March 9, 2008). "Los Angeles: Intelligentsia". The New York Times.
  18. Ted Botha (October 24, 2008). "Bean Town". The New York Times.
  19. Jonathan Gold (December 31, 2008). "The 10 Best Dishes of 2008". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  20. Jonathan Gold (August 20, 2008). "Tierra Mia Explores Coffee for the Latino Palate". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  21. Amy Scattergood (October 25, 2006). "Artisans of the roast". Los Angeles Times.
  22. Cyndia Zwahlen (September 15, 2008). "Coffeehouse Serves the Latino Community". Los Angeles Times.
  23. Yolanda Arenales (September 7, 2008). "Cafe Gourmet Pese La Crisis". La Opinion (in Spanish).
  24. Stuart Jeffries (March 16, 2009). "It's the third wave of coffee!". The Guardian.
  25. "Are Your Small Batch Coffee Beans Special?". fairtradeamerica.org. 15 April 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  26. "The Third Wave of Coffee and How It Came to be | Foodifox".
  27. The Decade's Top Ten in Specialty Coffee, Nick Cho, December 31, 2009; also references Michaele Weissman's "God in a Cup," which features the group collectively.
  28. Monica Bhide (June 30, 2008). "Good to the last drop". Salon. Elaborates that these three were widely cited in the industry as most influential.
  29. "New York Training Lab - Intelligentsia Coffee". Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  30. "Stumptown Coffee Roasters - Coffee Shop Locations". Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  31. "Peet's rides coffee's 'third wave' with stake in Intelligentsia". Reuters. October 30, 2015. Retrieved October 31, 2015.

Further reading
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