The First Sip

Nowadays we seem to be surrounded by specialty coffee shops and micro-roasters. It seems like you can now find one in every corner (thank goodness for that!). Coming from the starbucks coffee wave which I eventually outgrew, but definitely made me yearn for a higher standard in the coffee industry and boy did we get it!

Currently, we are in the “Third Wave Coffee” stage, with some people already moving into the fourth wave, but let’s start where the majority of this movement thinks we are in the process.

So what is Third Wave Coffee anyways?
The third wave of coffee is a movement to produce high-quality coffee. The goal is to consider coffee as artisanal food, similar to wine, bread, and cheeses rather than a commodity.

Buzzwords

Single origin: Within this movement coffee shops will offer coffee with this label. This term refers to where coffee was grown. This once referenced country of origin or region, but now this refers to certain farms, co-op of farms, or estates.

Small batch & micro roasting: These are terms commonly used in terms of “small batch roasting.” Similar to craft beer, these terms apply to the size of the roasting equipment rather than the amount of coffee roasted. A 25-lb. Roaster is considered small batch roasting. While more than 100 lbs. Falls under the macro-level roasting category.

Fair trade coffee: This refers to a certification. It fosters sustainable farming and financial health for small farms and coffee producers. The goal of this certification is to distribute profits to stimulate economic growth, encourage ecologically responsible farming, and fair working conditions.

Pour-overs: This is a very popular style of brewing, which refers to cups of coffee made individually. Beans are ground for a single cup and brewed in a cone dripper by meticulously pouring hot water over the freshly ground coffee, allowing it to drip directly into the cup. Check out my video on pour-overs.

Cold brew: To be clear this is not iced coffee. This style of brewing consists of coffee grounds that are steeped with room-temperature water for a period of 12 to 24 hours. The result is a less acidic coffee with higher caffeine content, this is usually mixed with water and served over ice. There are variations of this now such as Cold Brew on tap and Nitro Cold Brew. They are brewed the same way but served slightly differently.

In my research i ran into this link from google which I found pretty cool specially if you travel a lot, but still want your quality coffee. Enjoy!
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1ryJ07RkbND-EASyLaI_0nrM4f3c&hl=en_US&ll=-3.81666561775622e-14%2C-68.97219674999997&z=1