History and culture
Third-wave and speciality coffee
'Third wave' is a trade label for a style of selling and serving coffee that became prominent from the early 2000s. This entry records the term as usage; no document behind it has been read.
Each section below is labelled by how well-established its claims are — look for the label under each heading.
A label, not a dated event
Popular commercial narrative · 2000s onward
'Third wave' is a name used in the coffee trade for a way of selling and serving coffee that became prominent from the early 2000s: named origins, lighter roasts, brewing by hand, and more information on the bag. The phrase is usually credited to an article by the roaster Trish Rothgeb in the early 2000s. CoffeeHQ has not opened that article or any study of the period, so this page records the term as trade usage and makes no claim about when the movement began, who belongs to it or what it changed. What particular terms on a bag do and do not establish is covered in the guides to buying coffee, to prices and to certifications.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica coffee and coffeehouse history entries; The World Atlas of Coffee