THE TRUTH ABOUT THE 4TH WAVE.

We humans are funny creatures, we live in a constant state of dichotomy between the future and the past, always chasing the new yet with one eye constantly on what has been. We also love naming things, so when were looking back over our history we can clearly see that it's split into tranches of time, ages, eras, epochs etc...

The thing about these ages, is that you can only really identify them when we look back. It's rare that the step changes or advances in technology, theology or agriculture that forge them are recognisable at the time.  

In Coffee these ages have, somewhat contentiously, been termed waves. The nomenclature isn't important but their existence as distinct era's within coffee's history is by now accepted fact. 

Coined originally by Trish Rothgeb, the 3rd wave has described the speciality or artisan coffee world since the early 2000's, with it's key early descriptors being a focus on transparency of flavour and buying alongside manual brewing methods, Since then improvements in brewing technology, better process and agronomics at origin and an increased understanding of the chemistry of extraction have served as a natural evolution of 3rd wave concepts.

So, what of the next stage? What will the 4th wave of coffee be? How will we recognise when its here? Here's the thing, It's my contention that it is already here, infact, we've been in this 4th era for a few years now.

You see the 4th wave isn't about the coffee, or agronomics, or espresso machines, or superstar baristas, these are all 3rd wave concepts. The 4th wave is about people, the people who are making a difference improving working conditions at origin, the people who are ensuring the future of coffee's genetic stock, the people who are training the unemployed and disadvantaged to find them new careers in the industry, the people who are striving to promote gender equality. 

They've always been here, what's changed is that thanks to the Information Age we are cognizant of and have easy access to their work. It's this access to information and the education that comes with it that is pushing our industry forward.

 Think of it less as the 4th wave but more as the Information Age of Coffee.