4 + 1 Coffee Trends for the summer of 2024
The trends that concern coffee lovers this summer season.
Coffee is not only a beloved habit intertwined with our daily lives, but also a strong industry, employing millions of workers around the world. Like any industry, it evolves, mutates and changes forms, influenced by the spirit of the times and setting its own trends.
As we're already in the midst of the summer season, it's an opportunity to look at the coffee trends shaping the landscape this summer.
4 + 1 Coffee Trends for the summer of 2024
Single-origin Coffees Are Going Mainstream: That single-origin coffees have their own audience and absorb a large share of the market has been known for years. However, we are definitely living in the era where single-varietal coffees are making a breakthrough to a wider audience, rather than a closed, often elitist caste of hobbyists. Big companies are releasing single origin options, or at least giving weight to traceability in their blends, coffee shops and coffee shops are offering single origin coffees and in general, the good origin of coffee is starting to attract even more people.
Subscription coffees: This is a trend that is particularly flourishing in America, it is starting to appear in Europe and it remains to be seen if and when it will "hit" our country as well. The frenetic pace of modern life, the habit of doing everything through apps, the need for personalized services and the cultivation of an informed audience have led to the rise of what we call "subscription coffee", companies that, for a monthly fee, undertake to deliver coffee to your home that meets our needs. Rare coffees, custom made blends, mystery boxes, but also classic blends are some of the privileges enjoyed by subscribers of such a service.
Coffee and well-being: The trend that exists to improve our daily life (physical and spiritual) could not leave coffee unaffected, which is a daily habit for millions of people. Thus, the coffee industry is starting to adopt basic principles of well being: new methods of coffee processing, which minimize any negative effects (such as dewaxed coffee), removing caffeine only with natural methods (such as the swisswater method) are becoming more and more more popular and adopted by more and more companies, together with practices that concern the general good, such as reducing CO2 emissions, sustainability, respect for the environment, etc.
Bottled coffees are gaining ground: It may sound contradictory, but next to single varietal and single origin coffees, ready-to-drink coffee drinks are starting to gain more and more market space. Sparkling Coffee, Cold Brew, iced coffee drinks, whether from small roasteries or from giants in the field, are increasingly found in the refrigerators of both supermarkets and related stores, for those who want something refreshing, invigorating but at the same time authentic and healthy. As summer is the season that suits me best for these types of drinks, this season will probably be the first in which we will see them to such an extent.
Robusta begins and recedes: Robusta has for years been the main raw material for instant coffee, but also a key ingredient for espresso blends of all kinds – thanks to the intensity and body it adds to the blends, but also the distinctly lower, compared to of Arabica, his honor. However, a number of reasons (drought in Vietnam, climate change, increase in transportation due to international instability) have shot up the price of Robusta, which now touches that of Arabica – and in the face of this development, not a few companies prefer to invest in the more aromatic version of the coffee, leaving the robusta blends aside, until further notice.
Single origin, bottled, at our door with a subscription... coffee can take on many different faces - the only thing is certain is that we will enjoy it again this summer.
