Last Friday, Everette's Coffee attended Coffee Fest Chicago at Navy Pier. It was a beautiful summer day in the city, and the crowd at the show was buzzing (literally and figuratively)!
We spent the morning touring the exhibition hall, trying out interesting coffees, seeing new equipment in action and talking with a variety of awesome people across the industry like our friends over at Magnifico.
We were then invited to pull shots of espresso on an excellent Slayer Steam espresso machine at the ESI booth, which gave us a chance to showcase our Sandrolini Dark Roast and introduce more attendees to Everette's Coffee.
Now that we've had some time to digest our appearance at the show, here are three trends from Coffee Fest Chicago we wanted to share.
1. Don't ignore tea.
Obviously, the tea industry stands on its own. And Coffee Fest caters to cafes and other retail shops who might find it prudent to serve a variety of drinks or caffeinated products beyond coffee itself. That being said, we were mildly surprised by the number of tea exhibitors at the show.
We counted around 10 or so booths dedicated to tea, matcha or other energy drinks. There was a lot of interest and foot traffic around them, too. It's becoming more clear to us that coffee roasters, even those without their own cafe like us, might stand to benefit from expanding their product lines to include tea.
Some people are dog people, some people are cat people, and many people are dog AND cat people, if you catch my drift!
2. We are in the Fourth Wave of coffee in the U.S.
Some say we're still in the Third Wave, which began in the 1990s and really took off in the 2000s. Intelligentsia, whose origins date back to 1995 right here in Chicago, is a great example of a massive Third Wave success story.
(To read more about the differences between the first, second and third waves of coffee in the U.S., check out this blog from Driven Coffee Roasters.)
The difference between Intelligentsia and Everette's Coffee, however, might as well be the difference between Lake Michigan and pond at your local park. Imagine a really nice pond: well-maintained, clean and providing great joy for you and your community. But it's still just a pond... for now.
While the Third Wave brought specialty coffee to the forefront and educated Americans on the history, diversity and regional origins of coffee around the world, the Fourth Wave is bringing the specialty coffee experience into the home. More than ever, we hear from our own customers who are interested in experimenting with different brewing methods, equipment and types of coffee.
If the Third Wave was an awakening, the Fourth Wave is an acceleration, and we're here for it!
3. The growing intersection of coffee science and art.
Building on the point above, we saw at Coffee Fest Chicago just how much the technology and equipment matters - even beyond the store.
The race to develop cafe-quality, commercial-grade machines for smaller shops and in-home brewing is on. Home baristas are able to utilize technology in order to craft the best coffee drinks possible. In this Fourth Wave era, the more we can bring the experience of a cafe into the home, the better.
Automated and programmable equipment with data-driven features - from grinders to scales to brewing machines and everything in between - is no longer the exception, it's the rule. The exhibitors we saw and spoke with at Coffee Fest Chicago were well aware of this and excited for what lies ahead!
What have you seen or heard of in the coffee world that's caught your interest lately? Shoot us a note on our contact form or DM us on Instagram!
