How Coffee Shops Can Stay Relevant in The Fourth Wave

Years ago, I read a book that forever changed my approach to coffee as a cafe owner and coffee professional. This concept inspired the “specialty without snobbery” mantra we coined at Runabout Coffee, and it is a growing mentality in the cafe business. If fellow coffee professionals (baristas, cafe owners, and roasters) hope to stay relevant as the industry evolves into a new and exciting Fourth Wave, embracing this concept is nothing short of pivotal. And, ignoring it, may just be a clear sign of inevitable collapse.

The thing is, this book wasn’t about coffee. It wasn’t about food service, marketing your small business, or leadership development. It was about the history of the dictionary.

Geek out with me for a minute.

In the 1600s, it was the social elite that compiled the first dictionaries. Schoolmasters and clergymen purposefully omitted words that were used often by laymen but failed to promote the agenda and ideals of the high-class. In other words, their approach was elitist and exclusionary.

In the 1800s, lexicographers became more observers of the English language than dictators of it. Laymen now held the freedom to explore language for themselves, and curators of the dictionary merely reflected their speech. It was a needed change in order to engage the community rather than try (and fail) to define it.

Dictionaries still function like this: a reflection of our world, rather than the standard. The word “selfie,” for example, wasn’t in the dictionary until 2013 while the first known use of it was back in 2002.

Like the dictionary, the world of coffee has evolved through many years. Here’s a glimpse of what that looked like, and how we arrived at a much needed Fourth Wave.

The Evolution of Coffee In Four Waves

First Wave: Quantity Over Quality

In the 1940s, Folgers led the charge in the First Wave coffee movement. This movement was the rise of coffee a household commodity, and one in which the focus was quantity over quality. Many of today’s oldest generation still opt for over-roasted, pre-ground coffee from a tin tub.

Second Wave: Quantity Meets Quality

Later, coffee became an experience in the 1990s, introducing (thanks largely to Starbucks) the Second Wave. Starbucks brought the Italian espresso technique to the U.S., and baristas made it personal by writing names on the cups. “Going to coffee” became a thing as did the classic “coffee date.”

We define this second wave as quantity meets quality, and it was the rise of coffee as an experience. Like Folgers, the focus was still on providing a lot of coffee to a lot of people for a lot of profit, but the quality of the entire experience certainly improved.

Third Wave: Quality Over Quantity

Coffee’s Third Wave (quality over quantity; the rise of coffee as an art form) was led by places like Intelligentsia and Madcap. Small-batch roasters and tiny espresso bars popped up in every city corner. Scales, Rolls Royce espresso machines, and various pour-over apparatuses replaced automatic machines, and baristas began to make careers of their passion. Connoisseurs began approaching coffee like a sommelier approaches wine, and the concept of coffee education advanced.

It is this Third Wave that has introduced unique issues to modern consumers and paved the way for a better approach. While I am a fan of much of Third Wave coffee and what it stands for, I’ve struggled to choke down the elitist and exclusionary attitude of many people within its community (introducing the term “coffee snob”). It is not uncommon for an inked barista with wire-rimmed glasses to frown upon and even discourage the addition of dairy milk to a carefully extracted geisha.

Like early lexicographers, Third Wave coffee can be guilty of dictating what coffee should be inadvertently excluding their own customers. Still, there is another approach that reflects what coffee is and leads people to a better personal coffee experience. Without sacrificing personal and professional standards for an excellent product, coffee pros have an opportunity to influence communities for the better. We can do this by practicing specialty without snobbery, and evolving with the Fourth Wave.

Fourth Wave: Quality Meets Quantity

Coffee’s Fourth Wave is on the horizon, if not already here, and I like to think of it as quality meets quantity. Specialty coffee is more accessible than ever to aspiring home baristas. How the First Wave introduced coffee to home kitchens, the Fourth Wave introduces specialty coffee and semi-pro-to-professional practices. Especially in the age of the pandemic, people are investing in pour-over equipment, grinders, scales, and small espresso machines to replicate their coffee-shop favorites. YouTube channels, Facebook groups, and blogs (like ours) make learning even easier. With affordable basic-to-high-end equipment, free educational resources, local roasters, and coffee subscription services, quality is now available to the masses!

This is the Fourth Wave: the rise of specialty coffee as a household commodity. A coffee-lover no longer has to go to the coffee shop to experience it.

This is the Fourth Wave: the rise of specialty coffee as a household commodity. A coffee-lover no longer has to go to the coffee shop to experience it.

How Coffee Professionals Can Keep Up

While the “coffee snob” is largely mythical, coffee professionals of the Third Wave too often imply there is actually right and wrong when it comes to customer preferences. In response, people sink their heels and remain closed off to the prospect of improving their morning routine. This of course hurts those who depend upon coffee for their livelihood, and it also keeps the customer from experiencing the best there is to offer. Thus, the attitudes we have behind the counter may quite potentially stunt, if not massacre, the growth of our businesses. So, how do we ensure we do not go the way of the early lexicographers, tucked in history as pretentious and oppressive tyrants? How can we reflect our community instead?

As coffee professionals, if we really want to educate our communities on how to better experience coffee, we need to meet our customers where they are. We need to embrace our role as observers and engage our communities–not demand they meet us on our level. We have to listen better, adjust our standards, and encourage small steps.

Listen Before You Talk

First of all, we need to listen.

Baristas’ posture is too often holier-than-thou. In many cafes, there is a contagious assumption that everyone on the other side of the counter is a newbie. However, in this very real Fourth Wave coffee movement, we are seeing more and more customers who have invested time, energy, and money in their own coffee education. If we are too quick to spew our expertise, we risk not only wasting our breath but slamming the door on valuable connections.

In this very real Fourth Wave coffee movement, we are seeing more and more customers who have invested time, energy, and money in their own coffee education.

Instead, we should have a posture of curiosity, openness, and kindness. Let’s collaborate with our communities, not commandeer them! The more we maintain a listening posture, the more opportunity we will have to educate, and the better our businesses will thrive. The best educators have listening ears. And, honestly, who can say they’ve learned all there is to learn about the craft? There is always room to grow.

Adjust Your Standards

Secondly, let’s adjust our standards…constantly. People assume I never partake in diner coffee or Keurig cups, and (too often), they apologize for the coffee they serve me in their homes. However, when served these coffees, I keep my mouth shut other than to say a kind “thank you.” Only if they ask will I share my thoughts. 

This is something we need more of from coffee professionals: the ability to adjust our standards. Similar to how I’d expect a Quarter Pounder to be different than an Arugula-graced Farm-to-Table patty, I have different expectations from different places.

Does this mean I force myself to enjoy everything from everywhere? By no means! I certainly have my standards; I just know not to order a Cortado at a Starbucks.

Keep your standards malleable, and practice the sense of when to stay silent.

Encourage Small Steps

When I first started drinking coffee, it was from a church airpot, and I drowned it in cream and sugar. It wasn’t exciting, but it was my journey. In the same way, every coffee drinker has their own story, and, as coffee pros, we need to come alongside people wherever they are and encourage small steps taken toward a better cup.

Did they clean their Keurig for the first time? That’s great! Did they invest in a gooseneck kettle? Fantastic! Did they try making Cold Brew in a French Press? Nice work!

Also, and this is pivotal, we need to realize it’s their journey. The only reason we should ever encourage people toward higher standards is that we want them to improve their own personal coffee experience. Cleaning coffee equipment, for example, helps people not drink mold, and better coffee is actually healthier for you!

Make Damn Good Coffee

Lastly, we need to keep making damn good coffee (with a smile).

Every coffee professional has that cup–the one that opened the eyes of their palates and forever changed the way they approach coffee. Mine was in Chicago in 2010 at Gaslight Coffee Roasters (thanks, guys). Aspire to provide that cup to the next generation of connoisseurs, and foster someone else’s passion. Making amazing coffee is our strongest superpower. Coffee speaks louder than words.

Aspire to provide that cup to the next generation of connoisseurs, and foster someone else’s passion.

Still, even the best coffee will not scream loud enough against the harsh winds of snobbery, elitism, and exclusionary practices. Fellow baristas, roasters, and cafe owners, let’s not close the doors on coffee evolution. Let’s reflect our communities–not define them. Let’s enter the Fourth Wave coffee movement with humility, kindness, and respect–eager to collaborate with our community.

If we fail to do this, I fear we won’t survive.