The Development of Coffee: from Instant to Fine Coffee

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When you enter the cafe, most of the Italian names such as "latte" are printed on the menu, as if Italy is the source of coffee. I still remember that when we went to the Ice Room Tea Restaurant with our elders when we were young, the names we most often heard were "frozen lemon coffee" and "fast coffee". If we asked the local old man what "cappuccino" was, he would probably be confused!

Two generations, two kinds of understanding, when did this generation gap begin? From the emergence of the first cafe in the 16th century to the mid-20th century, people drank coffee only for religion, caffeine, or for the unique social and cultural atmosphere of the cafe, as it has been for centuries. But in the decades since World War II, people's pursuit of the taste of coffee has changed dramatically.

In the past, European families went to the market for groceries, mostly including raw coffee beans. A small amount of baking every week, self-sufficient. However, with the rise of the industrial revolution, large enterprises have made instant coffee packaging a fashion. Freshly baked and ground? The culture is gradually forgotten. The so-called first wave of coffee is the mass production and cheap goods previously drunk in ice rooms and tea restaurants, which have no quality at all, so they must be mixed with milk and sugar to reconcile the bitterness.

Coffee = Italian

Espresso, which represents the second wave, originated after World War II. European immigrants revived the roasting process in the United States, using the then advanced technology, the espresso machine, to make espresso at high temperature and high pressure. Later, Starbucks chains swept the United States, and even the whole world equated "coffee with Italian style." When talking to today's young people about coffee, most of them will think of the milk bubbles (commonly known as pull flowers) with different shapes on the coffee. This is the product of the last wave.

Granny's method is the best.

actually? You don't need any electronic machinery to make high-quality coffee, just a pot of hot water and a funnel. A foreign guest once said, "this is clearly my grandmother's ancient way of making coffee!" How can it be top grade? " What the third wave emphasizes is the use of handicrafts to combat mechanization. Adjust the laws and regulations, return to basics, and elaborate the production process: a cup of coffee used to be charred by charcoal fire, ground by stone into powder, and then boiled with boiling water. What we are doing now contains scientific data and the precipitation of contemporary taste aesthetics. Unlike espresso with milk foam, boutique coffee pursues regional style and does not need to be added.

Recently, someone asked the author "will there be a fourth wave in the future". My response is to first find out what level should be used to define the wave. If so? Cooking and extraction technology to define, in fact, since 2010, some people have proposed to change the pressure? Italian concentration (pressure profile) is a mechanical breakthrough to explain the advent of the fourth wave.

But from a distant point of view, technological breakthroughs are inseparable from the boundaries of taste. The third wave of coffee has realized the chemical potential of this small fruit itself, from the refreshing of caffeine to now through craft-like planting, processing, roasting and extraction. This wave just bears witness to man's appreciation and fine taste of nature.

Patrick Tam / tr. by Phil Newell)

(owner of boutique coffee shop Knockbox, approved barista of American and European boutique baristas association, American CQI recognition cup tester, the first Hong Kong judge of Cup of Excellence)