The Next Movement - Where Specialty Coffee Is Headed by Geoff Watts

A great summation of thoughts on the direction of Specialty Coffee by Intellgentsia's green coffee buyer and chief innovator, Geoff Watts.

We agree with just about everything on the list.  A couple of qualifications: 

1) There's a place for dry process/natural processed coffees.  We've tasted a lot of crappy C-market Ethiopian Harrar along with some good ones - even if the "blueberry" is considered a defect.  We've also tasted some direct trade Mexico Nayarit Natural that was distinctly "port-y" in a way that likely couldn't be achieved by wet processing. It was delicious (and customers loved it).  Not to mention the Brazil naturals that are used in numerous excellent espresso blends.  Let's not kill dry/natural processing off for the sake of being purists.  But trying to figure out when/how dry processing makes sense for the farmer has merit.

2) Yeah, we'd like to dump urns and volume brewing.  We like to see light beer and ranch dressing on everything disappear too. But if you're not lucky enough to be in a market where foodies are a substantial % of your customer base, or you're "it" for the business district you serve, convenience will continue to be of importance - at least if you want to make enough money to stay off welfare.  Sometimes it's just about the caffeine.  Models that work for "coffee destination" shops don't work everywhere. But that shouldn't stand in the way of anyone wanting to improve the quality of coffee in their shops/neighborhoods.

One last thought - there are two types of coffeeshops in the world.  Ones owned by people who want to make better coffee and ones owned by people who don't give a damn.  The former deserve our help, even if they don't have all the "right" equipment, the coolest staff of baristas, money to spend on expensive microlots or even a particularly discerning customer base.  If we, as leaders in Specialty Coffee help them - as long as it takes - those things will come to pass eventually. 

The ones that don't care? We should see to it they get less and less business until they're all extinct.