Introduction

While this book started out as a long look at single-serve coffee and how it has become a part of life, it turned out to involve so much more. What was it about coffee culture that led to the single-serve option in the first place? Single-serve coffee did not appear in a vacuum. It took many years to get to the point where coffee lovers expected to be able to brew a fresh cup of coffee pretty much wherever and whenever they wanted. Imagine if a single-serve brewer had appeared somehow in, say, 1955, like in Back to the Future. I suspect that the people in the McFly household during that time period would have seen no use for such a gadget. “Make just one cup of coffee for just one person? Why? What about the rest of us who want some coffee? I have a whole can of coffee right here. Opened it two weeks ago and there’s still lots left.”

Well, it is all about what you’re used to, right?

Specialty coffee is the breakout spin-off from what past generations of coffee lovers had previously thought of as coffee. And specialty coffee has become ever more specialized. Is your specialty coffee shop not specialized enough for you? How about an even more specialized coffee bar inside the specialty coffee shop? Starbucks did just that when it opened Starbucks Reserve Bars in some of their stores. Starbucks also has specialized Roasteries where their premium, small-lot Reserve coffee beans are roasted. The Roasteries also serve the premium coffees. Starbucks has even announced it was opening a Roastery in Milan, Italy, in late 2018. Italy, where, according to Italy magazine:

“It would be fair to say that Italians are passionate about coffee. So much so, you would think they had discovered it. They didn’t. To make up for this, however, they have invented a coffee culture unequalled anywhere else in the world.”¹