from the is-"hipster"-second-or-third-wave? dept.
A time traveller from the early 1990s would be baffled by the coffee marketplace of 2022. What's latte art? Or grind uniformity? Or single-origin beans? And who cares anyway?
That time traveller would discover that a lot of people care and care passionately. Just as the markets of once-mundane items like beer, beignets, chocolate or meat have diversified and specialized to appeal to more discerning consumers, so too has the coffee market.
Connoisseurs commonly discuss defining aspects of third-wave coffee such as tasting notes, regional characteristics and roasting techniques. Coffee consumption has surged in the past decades thanks in part to the growth of the craft coffee community, and big commercial players are taking notice.
[...] "Craft firms believe that products or services should be a highly aesthetic experience," Dolbec says. For example, in coffee, the aesthetic experience — the acid notes of the brew, the latte art, the aroma — are all highly valued by craft coffee producer and consumer alike.
This contrasts with commercial firms, which seek first and foremost to maximize their profits, and whose products are designed to appeal to mass markets. Yet, the study finds that commercial firms are increasingly responding to the rise of craft firms by drawing inspiration from their highly aestheticized products and service.
[...] "All types of firms elaborate to compete against one another," Dolbec says. "They adapt innovations from firms of the same type, they transform innovations from firms that follow a different logic and over time that leads to craft logic becoming more present in the market. Just as you have Tim Horton's talking about homemade espresso drinks, you'll start seeing craft firms selling their own kinds of coffee pods."
Journal Reference:
Pierre-Yann Dolbec, Zeynep Arsel, and Aya Aboelenien, A Practice Perspective on Market Evolution: How Craft and Commercial Coffee Firms Expand Practices and Develop Markets [open], J Marketing, 2022. DOI: 10.1177/00222429221093624
(Score: 5, Funny) by ilPapa on Sunday July 24 2022, @06:40PM (1 child)
I'd like to know where the idea that coffee is supposed to taste good comes from. You know in the police shows, when the beleaguered chief goes into the break room and pours himself a cup and then makes that nasty face but still drinks it down? THAT's how coffee is supposed to taste.
You know what tastes good? Ice cream tastes good. Coffee ice cream is OK. But coffee is supposed to taste bad. That's how you know it's working.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:22PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by Barenflimski on Sunday July 24 2022, @08:16PM
I get my notes by pouring "enough" coffee in the filter, pressing start and playing tunes.
Sometimes my coffee is thick as molasses. Sometimes my coffee looks like herbal tea. Whatever.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday July 24 2022, @08:28PM (4 children)
Outside of the few times I've either made my own, or grabbed the work product, I'm the guy that goes into the top end coffee joints and asks for "a cup of coffee please. No, not that. Nor that. Just a cup of coffee"
I understand I'm paying $4 for a cup of java I could make at home for pennies, or at work for free. But I'm out and about and need a cup o' java.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday July 24 2022, @09:53PM (2 children)
This reads like you hate spending time at home and at work, and you'd pay anything for coffee so long as it's not at either of those places. I would look into a divorce and a job change if I were you...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @01:25AM (1 child)
And maybe a red convertible expensive muscle car as a chick magnet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @02:21AM
Make sure the red convertible has one of those little fridges that you plug into the lighter socket. In there put some chocolate covered coffee beans (they melt if not kept cool). Now you don't even need to stop at the coffee shop.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2022, @10:53PM
I'm with you. I don't like any sweetener in my coffee, so I just order a regular coffee, or one with some kind of dairy. Not a big fan of cold coffee either. I'll take a nice cold brew (unsweetened) and stick it in the microwave.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday July 24 2022, @09:48PM
Not really. Craft coffee is another instance of the age-old technique of turning low-profit-margin commodities into hip upmarket products targeted at those with too much disposable through marketing. People from the 90s would immediately recognize it as the Monster Cable [wikipedia.org] of coffee.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday July 24 2022, @10:23PM
There used to be a time when Nescafe or Jacobs were at least tolerable for courtesy sips along with cake or whatever. Nowadays, however, all the instant stuff tastes like dirt so I just end up asking for water.
My guess is that all the good beans are reserved for the pods while left over crap ends up in the instant blends.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tbuskey on Monday July 25 2022, @12:38AM (1 child)
In the early 80s, younger people were not drinking as much coffee as previous generations. There were industry ads to encourage the coffee generation. Similar to the Got Milk ads.
Starbucks was a Seattle only thing. Percolator coffee & instant were normal at restaurants even. Dunkins was at that level too.
I've always liked coffee, but back then, it needed sugar and cream. Now, I drink dark roast, black. You can usually find drinkable coffee at convenience stores and even dark roast.
If I had to go back to that unpalatable coffee, I'd quit drinking coffee.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @02:24AM
> Starbucks was a Seattle only thing.
Not quite sure of the timing, but I think Peets in Berkeley CA was a similar (but local only) thing?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 25 2022, @01:40AM
The problem of choosing a craft coffee/beer is a first world problem - have enough time and disposable income to allow paying the cost of available diversity.
Medieval time - the villages of the "first world" of that time would have their own "craft brewery", the logistics of making mass produced beer available far away was unaffordable at the time. A (space) traveler of the time would have been exposed to variability on the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford