As white-collar workers in modern cities, coffee is a necessity for many people during the workday.

Have a cup in the morning before going to work to refresh your mind. Have a second cup in the afternoon when you feel sleepy to keep going.

I have a colleague like this. The first thing he does before going to work every day is to buy a cup of coffee and leave it in the office.

However, even though we love coffee so much, we may not understand its history. When we were young, we first learned about the taste of coffee from coffee-flavored candies and ice cream. Then we gradually discovered that this black drink can help us sleep longer and refresh our minds. Gradually, it has become an indispensable part of many people's daily lives.

We know that the biggest benefit of coffee to us in the beginning is that it contains caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant that can help us drive away sleepiness and boost our spirits. Especially for people who need to do a lot of mental work, coffee provides great benefits.

Then again, have you ever thought about how coffee was discovered, how it gradually entered our lives, and how it created the coffee culture with us?

01 The origin of coffee and the birth of the world's first coffee shop

The origin of coffee

In botanical classification, coffee belongs to the genus of the Rubiaceae family of the Gentianales order, native to Africa, with many varieties. Wild coffee trees are evergreen shrubs, 3 to 3.5 meters tall, with small white flowers on the branches, with the scent of jasmine. When the fruit is produced, a row of green fruits are produced, which gradually turn red and become coffee cherries one by one.

The earliest claim about coffee is that shepherds in Kaffa, Ethiopia, observed that sheep became very active and excited after eating coffee cherries. Shepherds found that eating red coffee cherries can make people excited, improve concentration and make it difficult to fall asleep, so the efficacy of coffee spread.

Therefore, coffee was first used as medicine. After it spread from Africa to the Middle East in the 13th century, Arabs began to drink coffee and then passed it on to the Turks. Coffee had a very high status in the Muslim world in the Middle Ages. Monks drank it every day to stay alert for prayer at night, and then it gradually spread to ordinary people as a drink to enhance spirits and concentration.

The birth of the world's first coffee shop

In 1555, the world's first coffee house was opened in Istanbul, Turkey, and quickly became popular in the Ottoman Empire. Coffee houses appeared from Cairo, Egypt to Mecca, Arabia. Ordinary people chatted in coffee houses and talked about current affairs, business opportunities, politics and religion. They also played chess and gambled for entertainment. Occasionally, they would listen to some intellectuals' discussions on current affairs in coffee houses.

From the emergence of coffee houses in the 16th century to the present day in the 21st century, people have used coffee houses in almost the same way: chatting over coffee, discussing gossip, discussing business opportunities, criticizing the government, and inviting industry leaders to hold lectures and share their experiences.

It was not until the end of the 16th century, during the Turkish invasion of Vienna, that coffee beans were brought to Europe, and the Poles opened coffee houses in Vienna. Then, coffee quickly took root and flourished in Europe.

With the prosperity of Western civilization over the past five hundred years, coffee, which was born in Africa, has entered the world along with Europeans.

With the advent of the Age of Exploration, Europeans colonized Asia and America, bringing coffee cultivation and coffee culture to America and Asia. In the world of beverages, coffee gradually caught up with tea.

Coffee houses in the medieval Ottoman Empire

02 The arrival of the coffee wave

In 2003, a coffee roaster named Trish Rothgeb proposed the theory of coffee waves, which described three waves of changes in coffee drinks in the 20th century that quickly swept the world and affected business and human life. Basically, with the overseas development of American capitalism, the global consumption of coffee was greatly promoted.

The coffee wave describes a phenomenon that occurs all over the world. The time of occurrence varies from place to place, but now almost all the world's major cities have entered the third wave of coffee.

1. The First Coffee Wave

In the United States, it was mainly the 1940s-1960s. The time period varies around the world.

The mainstream coffee product is instant coffee. The main theme of the first wave of coffee was to promote quick access and easy drinking of coffee.

Many people know the benefits of coffee, but the original coffee making is quite troublesome.

After the coffee beans are harvested, they need to be fermented to remove the pulp, and then roasted to a suitable degree before being stored and sold as a commodity. When consumers want to drink it, they first grind it into powder, boil it with water, and filter it to get a cup of coffee. Due to the complexity of the production process, coffee cannot be promoted well.

In the 1940s, manufacturers developed instant coffee and marketed it with a lot of advertising. Brands such as Nestle and Maxwell House achieved great success. Instant coffee allows people to enjoy coffee quickly. In addition to instant coffee, Japan developed canned coffee products in 1969, which quickly became popular in the market. It can be said that instant coffee and canned coffee laid the foundation for the first wave of global popularization of coffee.

Instant coffee and canned coffee are also the basis of our understanding of the taste of coffee.

2. The Second Wave of Coffee

Since 1970, the development of coffee culture has taken on a different look. Italian coffee products have become mainstream, and the mermaid siren from Seattle has swept the world.

The second wave of coffee is the era of Starbucks coffee. Starbucks created a new type of coffee culture atmosphere, mainly in terms of products, venues, and services.

In terms of products, the original Nestlé instant coffee products are mainly made of Robusta coffee beans, creamer and sugar. Robusta coffee beans are easy to grow, have large fruits, low acidity, strong bitterness, and high caffeine content, so they are very suitable for use as instant coffee.

Starbucks uses Arabica coffee beans and fresh milk, which are ground and brewed by professionals, so that people can drink fresh and delicious coffee. In addition, it also uses a lot of fresh cream, syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, and ice cream for flavoring, making coffee more popular among people.

Arabica coffee beans are small-fruited coffee beans with less bitterness and higher acidity. They are relatively difficult to grow and have a more charming flavor.

Starbucks' products are made with Italian coffee. All coffee drinks are made from espresso, and then the amount of milk and milk foam added results in the differences between Macchiato, Cappuccino, and Coffee Latte.

Espresso is the base of Starbucks coffee

Due to Starbucks' global success, Italian coffee has become the most important drink for coffee pioneers of this era.

In terms of venue, the second wave of coffee shops all have a free social atmosphere, such as the Central Perk Cafe in the American TV series Friends, which has a sofa where multiple people can sit and chat freely, and also has separate tables and chairs for people to read and rest. It is worth mentioning that as a memory of the era, Central Perk Cafe still operates in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in China.

In the second wave of coffee, apart from the drinks, the most important thing was the consideration of space. It began to consider that everyone needs time to be alone without being disturbed. The time people can spend in coffee shops increased significantly, and coffee culture gradually developed.

In terms of service, customization was a very important success factor for Starbucks in its early days.

Everyone has different preferences for coffee, how many shots of espresso, how much milk to pair it with, more or less milk foam, whether to add sugar or sprinkle on cinnamon powder, these taste adjustments are very personal and fixed things.

Starbucks in the United States requires baristas to interact and get familiar with customers. As soon as they see a customer come in, they can make the coffee he is used to. At the same time, when you take an order, the clerk will also ask your name, so that you can quickly get familiar with the interaction with regular customers. The interaction between baristas and customers is also becoming more and more important in the coffee business.

3. The Third Wave of Coffee

Since 2000, coffee culture has entered the next era of change.

The small blue bottle, with its exquisite and cute appearance, promotes people's love for hand-brewed specialty coffee.

Representative brand: Blue Bottle

The third wave of coffee is just on the rise, and its manifestation is drip brewing, or hand-drip or pour over, which is a more popular way of making coffee in Northern Europe. Therefore, most hand-drip boutique coffee shops adopt the simple Nordic decoration style.

03 The representative of the third wave of coffee - "hand-brewed coffee"

What is hand-poured coffee?

There are several steps to making hand-brewed coffee:

1. Grind different coffee beans into different coarseness and fineness.

2. Place filter paper in the filter cup on the coffee rack, or use flannel filter cloth and add coffee powder.

3. According to different coffee bean flavor requirements, use hot water of different temperatures to inject coffee powder, and the extraction is completed when the coffee liquid drips out.

To brew coffee by hand, you need to choose the origin of the coffee, the processing method from coffee cherries to coffee beans (washed, sun-dried, honey-processed, etc.), and the depth of roasting of the coffee beans (mostly light roasted to medium roasted).

Because there are many different variables, each different type of coffee and different processing methods will have a different aroma and taste. You can ask the barista to introduce it in detail before making a choice.

There are several benefits of hand-poured coffee:

1. Focus on the coffee itself.

Hand brewed coffee is like tea art. Drinking it can be sophisticated or casual, but the coffee beans are the most important.

For a more sophisticated way of drinking, the barista will guide you to smell the dry aroma first, which is the aroma of the coffee after it is ground into powder. Then the wet aroma, which is the aroma produced after pouring hot water. Coffee is also divided into three flavors when it is drunk, and there are hot drinks, warm drinks, and iced drinks.

2. The barista’s skills are very important.

Unlike Italian coffee, coffee machines make it possible for coffee makers to have a similar level of skill. Hand brewed coffee is very particular about personal skills. An average shop assistant can brew coffee with an 80% flavor, but a top coffee maker can make you drink coffee with a richer flavor.

3. The production method ensures that people will not get tired of coffee.

Since most hand-brewed coffee is lightly roasted, the degree of roasting is low, the oil content is not high, and it is filtered with filter paper, the coffee oil will remain on the filter paper. Compared with Italian coffee, sugar-free and milk-free hand-brewed coffee has less burden on people's taste buds, allowing people to drink more cups of coffee with different flavors.

In addition, because Italian coffee is mostly dark roasted and contains more burnt substances, it is easier to drink too much and cause palpitations.

The spirit of the third wave of coffee is to let coffee tell consumers its unique flavor. It also pays more attention to baristas who independently run coffee shops and improve their skills. Therefore, small independent coffee shops are very popular, allowing consumers to have more drinking pleasure.

04 How to enjoy the good coffee brought by the third wave of coffee?

Due to the invasion of the third wave of coffee, many independent coffee shops in China have begun to sell hand-brewed coffee. Many people are often troubled and don’t know how to enjoy a good cup of coffee, or after ordering a cup of expensive Guisha coffee, they still ask for sugar and milk, which often makes people at Dong Coffee shake their heads and sigh.

How to order a cup of hand-brewed coffee that suits you?

1. Ask yourself what flavor you like first, and describe it to the barista. Usually, hand-brewed light roasted coffee will have a bright citrus sour taste, or a more mature red wine aroma, which is often a barrier for beginners, so if you really don’t like sourness, please tell the barista, I don’t like sourness.

2. Choose the origin: Generally speaking, African beans are very sour and sweet, Central and South American beans are slightly sour and sweet but have a floral aroma, and Asian beans have their own characteristics. If you want to be safe, choose beans from Central and South America, which have less strong characteristics but are not easy to lose points.

3. Choose the coffee bean processing method: The so-called processing method is to remove the pulp of the coffee cherry and leave only the coffee kernel. The most common methods are sun drying and water washing. The sun drying method uses exposure to the sun to ferment the pulp, so the fruit smell will easily remain in the coffee beans. A better description is the fruit flavor under the sun. The water washing method uses water to wash away the pulp, so there is less fruit smell left. In short, the taste is very clean and pure.

4. Roasting degree: Light roasting is the mainstream, and the flavors of each layer of coffee are clear, but the top taste is basically sour. People who are not used to it are recommended to drink medium roasted coffee first.

After choosing these, just watch the barista’s technique to see how he or she can extract this cup of coffee for you!

Conclusion

Coffee is not just a drink, but also a medium for cultural exchange and communication around the world. In modern times, it has become a lifestyle that fills our taste buds and spirits.

As a coffee lover myself, here are some suggestions:

If you have difficulty choosing, I suggest you go for Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, lightly roasted and washed.

The first part is the refreshing sourness of lemon, the middle part brings out the mellowness of coffee, and then there is a sweet aftertaste.

The most important thing is, after finishing your coffee, don’t leave in a hurry, but take a sip of the water that comes with your hand brewed coffee.

As the aftertaste of coffee accumulates at the root of your tongue, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the water is so sweet.