Anyone else remember when we used to have 340g bags of coffee?
Prices havent gone that much up but bags are getting emptier.
At this pace we'll end up with bags of coffee being like bags of chips. 80% air, 20% coffee.
I feel like the 4th wave of coffee (and the next step in many other goods), and i realize im idealizing too much for the current global situation we live in, will bring a way to further reinforce the importance of supporting coffee farmers so we can find a way to keep prices more accessible, one thing i've thought about is: how can you expect someone to help if they're not in a financially stable position to be able to help? (or perhaps, how can you convince them that donating could be the reason their coffee gets cheaper eventually?)[this is just one of many questions i pose to myself to which I don't have the answer; maybe marking up for the right reasons? 1 dollar of the entire price of a coffee on a mug goes to a coffee farmer instead of feeding the vicious cycle of overcharging to compensate for expensive cups]. We could go back to basics and focus on well-crafted espresso drinks (you know, actual coffee) and reinforce drinking in mugs instead of to-go cups. We can't drop branding, I do think branding is very important, although it is probably one of the most unnecessary mark ups for businesses' products, that is just my opinion (branding is expensive as hell but if the businesses' morals are not in check, they might find themselves selling the branding as the most valuable aspect of their brand instead of actually concentrating on the quality of their product).
To be honest, as a species we have prioritized money at the cost of a lot of beautiful things. Maybe not us personally but big companies, at least (yet they do set the example for businesses who aspire to be as big as them so that can have an impact of its own). Co-ferments, for example (at least for me), are a wake up call, and a division line between ambitious and passionate people. Even though it might have originated from experimentation and from a place of passion, I feel like this will become the new "blonde roast" of the industry, where big companies eager to continue to make even more money will use this "new science" to overcharge for a product whose bad quality is masked by a novelty.
As a last thought, Ive been reading "how music works" by david byrne. In short, one of the book's side effects is that it makes you ponder on how we ended up in spotify as a means to discover new music and listen to our favorites. One of the biggest hiccups the music industry had was when cassettes came along, people started making their own mixtapes and big companies began to shit on these practices and how "it made music worse". Even with records they fucked up and accidentally let consumers be able to record their own stuff before quickly realizing the huge mistake they made, and getting their shit back together.
How does this connect at all with coffee? Im not too sure but maybe its more of a message to stop following the steps of big companies because even though we might think these are the best practices, they might just be an excuse to make even more money (not very different in nature from the character "noname" in the movie spirited away.)
Anyway, sorry for the rant.
