To preface this beautiful revelation I came upon this lazy Sunday morning, let me tell you something about Starbucks. Starbucks revolutionized how Americans saw coffee and coffee shops. It was elegant, European almost, a way of bringing people together an experience - this "Third Place" between home and office. And as the Starbucks chain grew, the process of making the coffee, in my opinion, became more streamlined. Baristas worked quickly and efficiently to serve the long lines of customers. It had all the elements of George Ritzer's concept of "McDonaldization" (calculative, predictable, efficient, and controllable), but somehow had an air of sophistication and comfort. I believe Starbucks has also changed the way we look at fast food.
Which leads me to today. I watch baristas making coffee a lot while I'm waiting for my drink. I worked as a barista at a coffee shop once upon a time, and the way Starbucks has innovated their machines to make the preparation time efficient and quick is remarkable. Today, the barista took his time making the drinks. He was slow- definitely not your run of the mill Starbucks barista. His actions were calculcated. This man was not making just any cappucino he was carefully calculating out the perfect milk: foam: espresso ratio; it was a science, a work of art.
While the Brits are far superior when it comes to brewing the perfect cuppa (translation: cup of tea), their ability to brew coffee is somewhat lackluster (that's right Costa, I'm talking about your watered down filter coffee). Coffee in San Francisco, on the other hand, is exploding with innovation. And I realized while watching this barista today is that there is a reawakening of the art and science of brewing coffee.
American coffee is no longer the image you seen in "your local diner" or the tall silver behemoths you see at Starbucks. The magic - the sophistication in coffee-making was revitalized in companies like Blue Bottle Coffee. This Brooklyn/ Oakland coffee chain makes coffee-brewing manually. Each cup is carefully brewed in a long and intricate process that is far more nuanced and intricate than pouring coffee out of a tap.
Blue Bottle is a science. It's complex. And that complexity brings that sophistication, that luxury that Starbucks used to bring before it became so accessible.
In what Fast Company calls the "third wave" of coffee innovation, technology and science seem to be at the forefront of artisan coffee. Brewing methods are more technical, tablets are used to measure the recipe profile of a specific brew, etc.
While I am not a coffee equivalent to a sommelier, I can say that from a marketer's perspective this trend reveals two potential segments in the retail coffee industry: those who want a quick cup of coffee, and those who want to sit in and enjoy good coffee.
While a quick cup of coffee does not necessarily entail regular coffee machine filter coffees, there are implications of this. I believe Starbucks has, to a degree, lost some of its spark - and this is coming from a die-hard enthusiast. I believe somewhere in its growth Starbucks lost its "luxury" element. It lost the magic of the coffee-making process for those who would not mind waiting longer and spending more for a premium cup of joe. However, recent changes in the company are beginning to revitalise that spark. Their introduction of tasting rooms for premium "reserve" blends, and their introduction of express stores in a way begins to separate out the two different types of customers: those who want Starbucks the fast-food chain, and those who want Starbucks the artisan coffee company that changes the way we think about coffee. Needless to say, I'm glad they're going back to their roots.
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