cafeIKE wrote:A search for 'coffee' returns 174,000,000. '3rd wave' is 0.17%... thus tiny!

Nope, just that '3rd wave' is represented proportionally on the web. I'd bet that the number of '#rd Wave' shops and roaster compared to all of the shops and roasters would be somewhere in that proportional neighborhood.

This is absurd.

There is a term used, fairly commonly, in the coffee industry to refer to the newer look at espresso and specialty coffees in general, that stands as a simple abbreviation of that previous sentence. It's used because it's understood by the group of people that it addresses, and it's easier.
It isn't fashion, and it isn't self-aggrandizement, it's an industry lexicon growing as industry lexical patterns often do.
And, as often happens with hangers on and those with low self-esteem issues, some will adopt that term early and often incorrectly in an attempt to be with the cool kids. Others will attack the term because they will want to separate themselves as special, and not part of the herd.

Can we just get back to talking about coffee instead of talking about how we're allowed to talk about coffee without appearing too 'this' or too 'that'?
Seriously, we use the phrase because it's fast, easy, and descriptive. That's all. Sometimes a cigar is just a danged cigar.
And when you start to diagnose way too many social and psychological issue with a particular use of phrase, we start to suspect your social comfort... ; >

RapidCoffee wrote:Brace yourself, Ken: third wave is yesterday's news:

Actually, the real news (to me) was that the Salon website is still in existence. I thought it had long vanished into the ether.

ken

michaelbenis wrote:Yea, the world is awash with waves!

Global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps?

I moved this thread as it made more sense to be posted here. A short blurb I'd wrote previously.

So who invented the idea of "Third Wave Coffee" anyway? I have been hearing about this movement for years now and I just don't get it. Say you have been steadfastly working in the business of specialty coffee for the last 15 years and then one day in a breath there's, "Third Wave". Okay so who invented this we asked?

The basic principle for the inception of a third wave movement implies that the quality of coffee being presented to the general public was not sufficient to uphold a certain standard of quality. Assuming the standard is the SCAA's and not the owner of one or two specific businesses at the time looking to make a name for themselves. Well, I suppose that they could actually be one in the same. As a lover of coffee, I find the idea of a sudden inadequacy in quality to be ludicrous.

"So you have been serving us swill for the last 100 years?" customers ask!
Your local Coffee Roaster replies,
"Well yeah, we just decided after being in business for X years that we'd start serving better coffee"

Is a culture that identifies itself as pursuing the ultimate coffee experience, one that professes exceptional-ism, legitimate when there is no founding father?
"Alcoholics Anonymous', is an example of a movement that has been successful in changing conventional attitudes and they, as secretive as need be, had a traceable beginning and 2 co-founders. That is a legitimate movement that spawned into a self governing organization.

So I did some researching and I discovered "Third Wave" in Wikipedia. After reading the entry I came to the conclusion that the Wiki article chronicling the conception of third wave coffee and specialty coffee (the later will be featured in a subsequent post) are quite murky. One would expect inaccuracies from user contributed sources and that is the exact point here. To clarify, third wave coffee, as far as I can tell was coined in a Spring 2003 article of The Flamekeeper written by Trish Rothgeb (aka Tris Skeie). In which she states:

First Wave, Second Wave, Third Wave: this is how I think of contemporary coffee. There seem
to be three movements influencing what Erna Knutsen, a Norwegian immigrant to America,
termed Specialty Coffee. Each approach has its own set of priorities and philosophies; each
has contributed to the consumer's experience-and our livelihoods. Occasionally, the waves
overlap; and one inevitably spills over to influence the next. What have we chosen to accept as
conventional coffee wisdom? What have we rejected? What does the next wave have to offer?

The movement began with her article but who really started it? The answer is quite speculative, Trish, the SCAA, the Roasters Guild, the Barista Guild, etc.. Or maybe Nick Cho, formerly of Murky Coffee.
If there were ever to be a legitimate founder of a movement, not entitled Third Wave, but that exemplified the pursuit of quality coffee it would be, Erna Knutsen.

Third wave coffee, a pompous hipster movement mired in speculative history, which lays claims to the artisanal coffee experience will be telling us next year that the only way to brew coffee properly is to use the Clover® 2 machine. This new and improved version of the Clover® will be available selectively at Starbucks, 15th Ave Coffee & Tea, & exclusive retailers nationwide....(Not that there's anything wrong with that )