Third wave or just new truths?

For those of you who didn’t even know that there had been a first wave let me explain.

In the very trendiest Barista parlance there have apparently been 3 “coffee waves”. The first took place in the “old days” – that’s around 20 years ago. In those days coffee simply came from a country, whether it was Colombia, Brazil, Kenya etc. By naming the country of origin this was deemed to be “specialty coffee”.

The second wave probably started around 10 years ago with the idea that within a country there were growing regions that could be differentiated – Ethiopia, one of my personal favorites instead of simply having “Djimah” coffee, a blend of various regions, now had Sidamo, Harrar and Yirgacheffe and we coffee roasters started to recognize the significant differences in flavor that each region produced.

So we come to the “third wave”, where regions have given way to individual farms – Ethical trading and fair prices paid for great quality. Baristas in some cases having a relationship with the farmer who has grown the coffee they use.

It seems quite extraordinary that such a change should take place in such a short period of time, but isn’t this the case with so many aspects of modern life – old “truths” replaced by modern “truths”.

But as a customer of mine asked me the other day; Who David is driving this change? I don’t have customers banging on my door demanding to know the name of the farmer whose coffee I just served!

So what is going on here?

I believe that we are witnessing the fallout of Globalization; the rapid dissemination of information through the Internet and a media desperate for news 24/7.

20 years ago the old “truths” held sway. Jobs were for life, international companies didn’t have to worry about exploitation – an age of innocence. The birth of the computer changed all that; the old certainties were swept away – now it’s survival of the fittest.

Middle aged bank tellers were replaced by ATMs along with so many in their position, their experience counting for nothing only cost in the world of the bean counter.

So a younger more transient and questioning workforce has emerged. No longer shackled by that old fashioned term “loyalty” – Not shackled by history, the past, only by the certainty that the only rule is that there are no rules.

A new “truth” has resulted, a more humanitarian one – a meeting of equals. In coffee a sense of unity, equity; your dedication deserves my dedication. In a room in Los Angeles at the SCAA conference the question was put, “but surely this is simply evolution?” – I believe that it’s more like revolution, a revolution of a youth seeking new “truths” because the old truths have been shown to be “lies”.