tags: [] - coffee/history - coffee/history/waves aliases: - Second wave - Second wave coffee movement created: 2026-05-10 updated: 2026-05-10

Second Wave Coffee¶

Tags: #coffee/history #coffee/history/waves Aliases: Second wave, Second wave coffee movement Related: Coffee History MOC | Specialty Coffee MoC | First Wave Coffee Status: ✅ Complete

Overview¶

The second wave of coffee describes the period of expanded consumer interest in coffee as an experience rather than a mere commodity, running roughly from the mid-1960s through to the early 2000s. Anchored by the rise of coffeehouse culture, the second wave introduced espresso-based drinks, origin vocabulary, and the idea of the café as a social destination to the mainstream American market. While it represented a substantial step forward from the commodity-grade uniformity of the First Wave Coffee, the second wave ultimately retained dark roasting as its signature style and prioritised the experience of the coffeehouse over the intrinsic quality of the coffee itself.

Alfred Peet and the Berkeley Origins¶

The second wave's starting point is conventionally traced to 1 April 1966, when Alfred Peet opened Peet's Coffee & Tea at 2124 Vine Street in Berkeley, California. Peet was a Dutch immigrant who had trained in the European coffee trade and found American commercial coffee to be of unacceptably low quality. His shop offered freshly roasted, single-origin beans and introduced Bay Area consumers to a darker, richer roast profile drawn from his European training. Peet's operation was small and artisanal by later standards, but it demonstrated that American consumers would pay more for a demonstrably superior product when given the opportunity.

Starbucks and the Mainstream Expansion¶

In 1971, three acquaintances of Peet — Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker — opened the first Starbucks store in Seattle's Pike Place Market. The founders initially sourced their beans directly from Peet and modelled their retail approach on his. Early Starbucks sold high-quality whole-bean coffee for home brewing rather than prepared drinks.

The transformation of Starbucks into a prepared-beverage chain came after Howard Schultz joined the company in 1982 as Director of Retail Operations and Marketing. Following a trip to Milan in 1983, Schultz became convinced that the Italian espresso bar model — where customers stood at a counter drinking espresso and socialised briefly before moving on — could be adapted into a more leisurely American format. After leaving Starbucks briefly to found his own chain, Il Giornale, Schultz acquired Starbucks in 1987 and merged the two businesses, pivoting the brand toward espresso drinks and the coffeehouse-as-destination concept.

Starbucks went public on NASDAQ in 1992. By 2006 the company operated more than 17,000 locations globally, a scale of expansion with no precedent in specialty retail.

Espresso Drinks and the New Vocabulary¶

The second wave's most lasting contribution to mainstream coffee culture was the popularisation of milk-based espresso drinks. Cappuccinos, lattes, and flavoured variations such as the caramel macchiato entered everyday consumer vocabulary during this period. Menu boards at second wave cafés introduced terms like single origin, dark roast, and French roast to consumers who had previously known only canned ground coffee by brand name.

This vocabulary expansion was significant even if its depth was limited. Origin names began to appear — Ethiopian, Sumatra, Guatemala — though they were used as flavour shorthand rather than as the basis for genuine traceability or producer relationships. The second wave created the audience that would later be receptive to the more rigorous quality and origin discourse of the Third Wave Coffee movement.

The Coffeehouse as Third Place¶

A defining cultural contribution of the second wave was the framing of the café as a Coffeehouse as Third Place — a social environment distinct from both home and workplace. Howard Schultz explicitly drew on sociologist Ray Oldenburg's 1989 concept of "third places" in describing Starbucks' purpose: to provide a comfortable, consistent, accessible environment for informal social gathering. The expansion of seating, the standardisation of ambient music and décor, and the expectation that customers could remain for extended periods without obligation all reflected this positioning.

Dark Roasting as Defining Feature¶

The second wave's signature roasting approach — dark, oily French and Italian roasts — was inherited from Alfred Peet's European-influenced philosophy and became the dominant commercial style throughout the period. Dark roasting created bold, consistent flavour profiles that were immediately legible to consumers trained on commodity coffee, while reducing the variability introduced by differences in green bean quality or origin character. The approach was commercially effective but had the effect of homogenising flavour and obscuring the origin-specific qualities that the third wave would later seek to highlight and preserve.

Limitations and the Third Wave Reaction¶

The second wave expanded the coffee market, elevated consumer expectations, and established espresso culture in the United States. It did not, however, close the gap between the experience of coffee and the quality of the coffee itself. Dark roasting masked rather than celebrated origin character. Milk and flavoured syrups became the primary flavour components in many drinks. The focus on coffeehouse atmosphere and branded consistency took precedence over transparency about sourcing, processing, or brewing. These limitations set the conditions for the Third Wave Coffee movement's emergence in the early 2000s, which prioritised lighter roasting, single-origin traceability, and direct producer relationships as the foundation of a genuinely quality-focused coffee culture.

Key Facts¶

Approximate period: 1966–early 2000s
Peet's Coffee & Tea opened 1 April 1966, Berkeley, California
Starbucks founded 1971 in Seattle by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker
Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982; acquired the company in 1987
Starbucks went public on NASDAQ in 1992
Starbucks exceeded 17,000 locations globally by 2006
Defining characteristics: espresso drinks, dark roasting, coffeehouse-as-destination, origin vocabulary without deep traceability

References¶

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