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The Third Wave of Coffee

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Third-wave coffee, a term formally coined in the 1999, represents a period of coffee that is highly focused on single-origin beans and knowledge about the farming and processing practices that yield the crop. Emerging in the 1980s, it is also marked by lighter roast profiles, manual brewing methods like French presses and pour-overs, and high freshness transparency. 

The Specialty Coffee Association of America provided a platform for this new style of roasting and brewing. It established the “Gold Cup” award to recognize restaurants that adopted and met these quality standards. 

Specialty Coffee Association of America

A binder with the title page "Coffee Roast Classification System developed by Agtron - SCAA 1995" over varied light and dark coffee beans forming the picture of a steaming coffee cup.

The SCAA formed in 1982 under the direction of several industry professionals with the purpose of setting quality standards for specialty coffee. This global coffee trade association focused on science-based research and education. In the 1990s, Ted Lingle, then-president of the SCAA, published a handbook on the science of brewing in an effort to establish scientific brewing standards for the coffee industry. 

In 2017 the SCAA merged with the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe to form the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). 

“Dear Dan Cox Enclosed is a draft copy of the Coffee Brewing Handbook that SCAA intends to publish early next year. We are asking key members of the coffee roasting and brewing equipment trade for review and comment in order to amend the text before the final edit. The majority of the text is based on research done by the Coffee Brewing Center, with appropriate new materials added where applicable. It will be used in SCAA’s training program on coffee brewing, and it will also serve as the basis for a ‘coffee brewer certification’ program and a foot service ‘good brewing standards’ awards promotion. Please comment freely on any of the materials contained in the draft. We would like to receive your critique no later than December 1, 1994. We are seeking as wide an industry review as possible, and if you would like additional copies of this draft sent to other members of the trade, please let me know. Thank you for your assistance. Sincerely Ted R. Lingle, executive director (With signature)”
A light beige background with the words “Coffee Brewing Handbook By: Ted R. Lingle DRAFT” in the middle, and “Specialty Coffee Association of America” in the top left-hand corner with a steaming coffee cup monogram.

Ted R. Lingle, Coffee Brewing Handbook (draft), 1994.
Russ Kramer Papers, D-817

A page from a book reading “Checklist for coffee qualities” at the top.
A page from a book reading “Coffee Quality” and a percentage diagram illustrating the world as a coffee cup filled with the percentages “⅙ best tasting arabicas, ½ mediocre tasting cups of coffee, ⅓ worst tasting bobustas” over the words “a 100 page critique of how to obtain a satisfactory tasting cup of coffee 1987”.
Sivetz Quality Coffee Primer, 1987
Specialty Coffee Association Records, D-818
Technology and Coffee