Related Sponsors

Kooky for coffee

Home » Coffee » Blog » Kooky for coffee

The Chicago Tribune has posted a piece on the increase in coffee connoisseurship.

The proliferation of coffee shops helped usher in a new era, and coffee lovers now have a new bean to grind. Many are doing their own roasting, grinding and cupping-testing the beans' quality by sipping and spitting out samples.

These budding hobbies reflect a trend: Americans have moved away from store-bought brands and are flocking to coffee shops and gourmet outlets-and treating coffee a lot like wine.

In coffee circles, connoisseurs refer to this trend as the "third wave" of American consumption, said Kristin Marks, 20, a barista at Metropolis in Rogers Park.

From the first wave-freeze-dried and canned brands-Americans leapt to the second wave, making espresso at home and frequenting quality cafes such as Starbucks.

The third wave carries coffee drinking to the next level, with specialized roasting, grinding and cupping, and picking gourmet beans by their vintages from around the world.

The total consumption of gourmet coffee has reached an all-time high, with 63 percent of Americans saying they drank at least one gourmet coffee beverage within the past year, according to a recent study by the National Coffee Association of USA.

The best trend we can hope to develop here is a widespread group of baristas and personally-invested entrepreneurs to open more shops. The less Starbucks-like homogenization of the industry, the better.

Next Page: Diabetes killer

Related Blog Articles