Perhaps, by the time you’re reading this post, you’ve already ordered your usual coffee at the bar or brewed a cup at home, sweetened it with one or two spoonfuls of sugar, and added a splash of hot milk…
But it doesn’t have to be that way. While we sip that coffee, we ignore that there is a better reality. We ignore that today it’s possible to drink high-quality coffees, to know where they come from and how they were processed and roasted. This is the new wave, where coffee lovers have more knowledge and more options.
If you want to leave bitter coffee behind and taste something better, we invite you to join the third wave of coffee and become a caffelier—a true coffee lover and connoisseur.
Fair warning: the journey will be long, but passionate. Ready?
Discover the past
Since coffee was first discovered and began to spread, the first wave of coffee emerged, traveling from Africa to the Middle East and then to Europe. Only the wealthy and powerful had the privilege of drinking coffee.
Most of us are immersed in the second wave of coffee. Thanks to it, coffee became popular and made its way to our tables in every form (ground, whole bean, even instant). Affordable coffee shops opened, and espresso machines expanded from Italy to the rest of the world.
But in this process of democratization, quality suffered. Producers focused more on quantity than on quality. Coffee lots full of defects were commercialized, and to mask those flaws, dark roasts prevailed.
Market challenges and consumption trends gave rise to the third wave of coffee. In this third stage, origin and quality take center stage. Coffee with traceability emerges—coffee that reveals its flavor profile depending on its origin and processing. Coffee is not bitter, and it has so much more to offer!
We also learn that coffee has its own quality scale. On one end is commercial coffee (already familiar to us), and on the other, specialty coffee. Expert cuppers are in charge of evaluating and classifying complexity: the more complex a coffee, the higher its score and quality.
Dive into the third wave of coffee
In this new stage, the coffee consumer is no longer just the caffeine addict who needs it to wake up, or the one who uses it as an excuse to chat (both perfectly valid). A new profile joins the scene: the true coffee lover, the one who refuses to settle for “just a cup.”
To become a third wave consumer (and, over time, a caffelier), the first step is to absorb knowledge. We need to learn about origins, to understand that drinking coffee from Africa is not the same as coffee from the Americas. That Arabica is not the same as Robusta. That a medium roast is far better than a dark roast. That good coffee is truly brown, not black, and doesn’t need added flavors.
One way to gain knowledge is through baristas—key players in this third wave—who are well trained, know the coffee they’re using, its origin, flavors, and the best ways to prepare it.
Another source is websites and magazines that talk about coffee. Many may be too specialized at first, but others—like us—are dedicated to bringing the world of quality coffee closer to every coffee drinker.
