Yes, it’s about coffee today
Luckily we are neither musically in the 80s, nor is it about surfing today. And who has not noticed anything of the third wave of coffee, is from today on up to date. But let’s start from the beginning.
Until the 20th century coffee was known to be very expensive and affordable only to the elite – the Black Gold. Then came the …
First Wave: Coffee for everyone
- before the Second World War until the 1960s.
- Due to the increase in demand, production conditions changed.
- Expensive, country-specific coffees, which were weighed and freshly ground in small shops for the customer, gave way to cheaply mass-produced coffee, which were already ground and vacuum-packed in the supermarkets.
- The quality as well as the esteem for the product was lost in favor of the profit.
Second Wave: better quality for everyone
- From the mid-1960s, the quality of the coffee moved back into focus.
- Higher quality Arabicas and espresso drinks found their way into the mass market.
- In Germany, not so much was felt. When buying Krönung, Gala and Co. what counts is the brand and not the country of origin or the roasting of the coffee.
Third Wave: Transparency, Fairness and Best Quality
- In the 1980s, the third wave started in Norway, in the 90s, she also reached the USA.
- Now it’s about very high quality standards.
- Every single step is important to get the most out of the bean.
- Best growing regions, sustainable cultivation methods, the fairly paid small farmers, the direct contact and import of coffee and roaster and barista, who competing at championships.
- More traditional time-consuming preparation methods, such as French press, hand filters or siphon are in vogue.
New Wave: What is coming next?
- It creates something new by combining the best of the Third Wave with elements of Second Wave culture.
- In the Third Wave, a small coffee elite has formed.
- The New Wave seeks to make the achievements of the Third Wave more accessible to the public.
- And why not just Fourth Wave? Because we are just in a transitional phase.
- We have reached the Fourth Wave when we finally say no thanks to suboptimal / wasteful / expensive capsule coffee.
- Maybe it will be the end of the point of sale and we get our coffee from drones. And who knows, maybe without women quota there will be more women in the business.
As long as not every man wears a beard, I’m a big fan of the New Wave.