What Does Specialty Coffee Mean Beyond the Third Wave?

Specialty coffee is not the same thing as the third wave. The third wave describes the full supply chain experience, from cultivation through roasting, trading and brewing to the final cup, while specialty coffee refers to the specific products and practices encountered along that chain. The term was proposed in 1978 and reached wide consumer awareness around 2009.

Each wave shifted what drinkers noticed. The first wave established coffee as an everyday beverage; the second stressed freshly ground beans and skilled baristas; the third drew attention to growers, green bean traders and roasters. Higher coffee quality, direct trade, sustainability and lighter roasting profiles all supported this shift, though some practitioners now overemphasize professionalism at the expense of customer service.

Over the past decade or so, the coffee industry has developed rapidly, and the third wave of coffee has led more and more consumers to pay attention to specialty coffee. But specialty coffee is not the same as the third wave; the latter covers the complete supply chain experience from cultivation to cup, while the former refers to the specific things encountered within that experience. This article sorts out the core differences among the three waves, reviews the journey of the specialty coffee concept from its proposal in 1978 to widespread consumer awareness in 2009, analyzes how features such as light roasting and direct trade have driven quality improvements, and points out the problem that some practitioners today overemphasize professionalism while weakening customer service. The healthy development of specialty coffee is inseparable from a positive cycle between consumers and the supply chain.

Over the past decade or so, the coffee industry has experienced rapid expansion, and many friends, driven by the third wave of coffee, have begun to turn their attention to specialty coffee. As a result, an impression has gradually formed: specialty coffee seems to be equivalent to the third wave of coffee.

In reality, however, the third wave of coffee does not refer to a specific cup of coffee. It encompasses all coffee-related elements and the entire supply chain presented through them; in essence, it is an experience. Specialty coffee, by contrast, is what we actually come into contact with during that experience.

The first wave of coffee valued the convenience of drinking coffee, the second wave emphasized the necessity of freshly ground coffee beans, and by the third wave, the focus shifted to the value of the entire coffee supply chain.

The differences among the three can be understood this way: the first wave made the public aware that coffee exists as a beverage; the second wave made people understand that for coffee to taste good, it depends on freshly ground beans and professional baristas; the third wave made people realize that behind a good cup of coffee, it is not just the barista who deserves credit—roasters, green bean traders, and even growers also play a key role.

The pursuit of higher coffee quality, the implementation of direct trade, greater emphasis on sustainability, the use of lighter roasting profiles, and the application of diverse brewing methods—these are all typical hallmarks of the third wave of coffee.

The first wave sought only speed and convenience, the second wave emphasized only fresh grinding, while the third wave let consumers truly feel that coffee itself can present unique flavors. Precisely because of this, more and more consumers have begun to pursue the acidity and sweetness in coffee, as well as the complexity and uniqueness of its flavors.

However, this only shows that coffee's flavor and quality have improved; this is merely the foundation of specialty coffee, not the whole picture. When many people talk about specialty coffee, they discuss professional knowledge such as coffee varieties, cultivation, processing, roasting, and brewing, yet few mention the aspect of customer service.

The word "specialty" in specialty coffee is itself an important part of a series of high-quality services, because it guarantees the quality of the coffee that drinkers can taste and provides a systematic method of quality evaluation. Whether a cup of coffee tastes good, whether it can score highly, and whether it can capture consumers' attention all require professional ability and service to interpret.

The reason the third wave of coffee has become widely recognized is that it creates an experience that makes consumers feel different. Customer service is one part of it, and the story behind the coffee is another.

Driven by the third wave, people began to pay attention to specialty coffee. Besides the improvement in coffee quality itself, this also depends on roasters and baristas presenting the unique charm of a coffee bean, plus the story woven together by producers, importers, roasters, and baristas, as well as the barista's telling of that story—all of which add extra value to the cup.

Therefore, the key to specialty coffee does not lie in whether the beans score high in cupping or whether the flavors are rich, but in whether the strengths of the coffee itself are presented from a professional perspective—whether by growers, traders, roasters, or extractors.

So, did specialty coffee only come into being after the third wave appeared? Of course not. The concept of specialty coffee was proposed as early as 1978, referring to coffee beans cultivated under specific climate and geographical conditions that have unique flavors. In other words, coffee beans that can express a distinctive regional (origin) flavor can all be called specialty coffee. The third wave was born after the turn of the millennium, and consumers truly began to pay attention to specialty coffee only in 2009.

After the concept of specialty coffee was proposed, coffee growers in various places began to value the flavor performance of coffee beans, continuously seeking and cultivating coffee varieties that could present better flavors with stable yields, and gradually became aware of the influence of environmental conditions during coffee bean processing on flavor expression.

Because quality was still unstable, and under the influence of the espresso (second wave) trend, coffee beans were mostly dark roasted. Under excessive caramelization, the good and bad flavors in coffee would gradually become "homogenized," ultimately leaving only bitterness and a rich, full-bodied taste.

After more than a decade of continuous research on cultivated varieties, the quality of coffee beans themselves improved greatly and became more stable. Only then did roasters begin to experiment with light roasting, allowing the sour and sweet flavors in coffee to be preserved and further identifying defective flavors in the beans themselves.

At the same time, more and more coffee bean competitions emerged, making more growers realize that only clear flavors could win honors and allow the coffee they grew to sell at higher prices, thereby encouraging everyone to pay further attention to variety cultivation and farming.

Why did specialty coffee suddenly attract consumer attention after 2009? Because the Specialty Coffee Association of America redefined the term specialty coffee, stating that coffee beans scoring 80 or above according to SCA cupping standards are specialty coffee. This statement was much easier to understand, so many cafés began using this standard to promote specialty coffee.

Of course, at the time, not many coffee beans could reach 80 points or above, and prices were relatively high. But every coffee interpreter cherished every opportunity to present it, letting consumers feel the unique quality of that cup and how it differed from ordinary coffee, and also allowing more people to appreciate the charm of specialty coffee.

But today, more and more interpreters care only about coffee's unique quality and showing off their own professionalism. Customer service has gradually been downplayed, making many people new to coffee feel looked down upon by specialty coffee. Clearly, these practices are not conducive to the healthy development of the coffee industry, nor are they the message a cup of specialty coffee should convey.

If we want coffee quality to improve and more people to appreciate specialty coffee, it is inseparable from more people pursuing coffee. There is a cycle between consumers and the supply chain.

The emergence of specialty coffee depends on more consumers pursuing coffee more highly—leading growers to cultivate and process with more care—leading green bean traders to seek high-quality beans with more care—leading roasters to be more willing to study roasting methods that can bring out better flavors in coffee beans—leading baristas to study more extraction methods that present flavor layers and spread more professional knowledge—leading consumers to pursue coffee even more.

Coffee is highly inclusive, and coffee practitioners should be the same. Everything can keep getting better precisely because more and more people have pursuits. Misleading the positioning of specialty coffee benefits no one～

Image source: Internet

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.