The Time and Place for the 4th Wave (Coffee)

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Like most liberal arts grads, I’m a former barista.

I’ve worked almost exclusively in 4th and 5th wave coffee shops, where I’m surrounded by hipster millennials, and each drink has strict rules - Cappuccinos are always hot and always 8 oz, lattes always 12oz, micro foam, micro foam, blah blah blah.

Because I worked in the world of specialty coffee for almost a decade, the snobbishness that you would associate with one of these shops slowly started to steep into me until it took over my own personal opinions. For example, if a coffee shop had multiple sizes for a cappuccino (or, God forbid, offered it iced) I wouldn’t go back, if a shop had an iced macchiato I wouldn’t go back, if they didn’t offer a pour over or had too many not made in house syrup options I wouldn’t go back. This limited my options, made me overly judgemental, and left me buying 7$ 12 oz whole milk lattes multiple times a week.

5 months ago I quit my cafe job. I’m happy that I did, it was time for me to move on to the “corporate” world and explore the work force beyond customer service. Of course there were other factors in my decision, but I ultimately decided that barista-ing simply wasn’t in the cards for me at that time. So I pivoted. Every time I leave a cafe job, I take a break from going out to coffee. Grabbing coffee is something that should be fun and relaxing, but the sounds and the smell make my brain think that I should be working. Because of this, only recently have I been going back to buying coffee out and while I love going to a good 4th wave coffee shop (shout out Thank you Thank you - best coffee in Philly right now) and listening to the baristas talk about different roasting processes, knowing that my cortado with a dash of chocolate will be steamed perfectly and look beautiful, I’ve been really enjoying going to 2nd wave shops and getting drinks that previous bosses and managers I’ve had would fire me for ordering.

And I’ve been so free and happy.

I’m sure there’s some poetic statement I could make about being free to make personal decisions, or getting past pre-concieved notions, but for right now I’m just observing changes in my own life. One of them is that I’m prioritizing the cozy aspect of a coffee shop over the “coolness.” There’s something real about having the girl in front of you order a large iced cappuccino with almond milk, listening to a podcast with wired headphones while you wait and paying (and tipping - tip your baristas!) with cash.

Specialty coffee still holds a place in my heart but for the every day, especially because I’m not a black coffee drinker I’m veering away from the culture. It makes having a 5th wave 6$ cortados shared with coffee loving friends something to be cherished.