Episode Details

Specialty coffee lives or dies on a 100 point scale: certified Q graders score green coffee, and anything under 80 goes to commercial blends. This episode traces how coffee reached that level of scrutiny through three waves. The first wave was vacuum canned, pre ground, often robusta coffee like Folgers and Maxwell House. The second began in the late 1960s with Peet's in Berkeley and inspired Starbucks, introducing origins and espresso drinks but roasting dark for a uniform brand taste.

Timothy J. Castle used the term third wave in 1999, and Trish Rothgeb popularized it in 2003, comparing coffee's eras to the waves of feminism. Third wave roasters used lighter roasts, manual brewing, and direct trade with farmers. Intelligentsia in Chicago, Stumptown in Portland, and Counter Culture in North Carolina led the U.S., until Peet's, part of JAB Holding, acquired Intelligentsia and Stumptown in 2015. In London, Flat White opened in 2005 and Square Mile followed in 2008, while Melbourne became famous for its cafes.

• Arabica grown at high altitude matures slowly, building denser, more complex sugars in the seed.
• Direct trade meant buying from farmers face to face at prices tied to the quality score instead of through commodity brokers.
• In 2014 Starbucks invested 20 million dollars in a Seattle roastery and tasting room aimed at the third wave market.
• Square Mile cofounder James Hoffmann won the 2007 World Barista Championship, and London hosted the event in 2010.
• Australian baristas won the world title in 2003, 2015, 2022, and 2025, drawing on a postwar Italian espresso culture.