The Thinking Cup Blog

Third Wave Coffee is an altogether different animal than the dark roasts made popular during the second wave—creating an excellent brewed cup is broken down into a science. Third Wave Cup roasters usually take the raw green beans and cook them lightly which brings out their special qualities. How much a strain of coffee bean ought to be coarsely or finely ground, is carefully examined to give the best flavors once brewed. Obviously, water-to-coffee proportions and brewing temperatures are approached similarly. The result of all this time and consideration is a cup of coffee with so much depth and complexity...

Today's true coffee lovers are a larger number of connoisseurs than enthusiasts, as they are turning out to be highly educated, expert judges of all things coffee-related. They hope to value coffee as one would wine, with a quest to know everything from what date it was roasted on to the precise farm on which it was grown. The Third Wave Coffee movement started around 10 years ago by those with a true obsession in regards to each step on a coffee bean's journey from planting to brewing. They sought out "single origin" beans harvested in specific conditions varying from...

For those new to the idea of Third Wave Coffee, you may ponder what it truly implies. Pulitzer Prize-winning food pundit Jonathan Gold said the following regarding this topic back in March of 2008, "The first wave of American coffee culture was most likely the nineteenth century surge that put Folgers on every single table, and the second was the proliferation, beginning in the 1960s at Peet's and moving rapidly through the Starbucks grande decaf latte, of coffee drinks and regionally labeled coffee. We are presently in the third wave of coffee connoisseur-ship, where beans are sourced from farms rather...

Do you know, why Boston is often called Beantown? The beautiful city of Boston earned its nickname many years ago because of the city's love of coffee. It may seem amazing, but it's true, Boston's association with coffee had existed since the 1600s, when Dorothy Jones of Boston was issued the first license to sell coffee as reported by a few sources. Actually, The Boston Tea Party was scheduled in 1773 in the Green Dragon—a café. Apparently, Bostonians cherish their coffee, and thus majority find themselves on an endless search for the best coffee in Boston. Beyond any doubt Boston...

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Thinking Cup’s preferred choice of Third Wave Coffee roaster, is renowned for setting the standard. Not so long ago, Stumptown released a cold brew coffee packaged in a Nitro-pressurized bottle. Following that up, they went a step higher in their cold brew game yet again by releasing their yearly Grand Cru coffee bean as a glass-bottled RTD cold brew! This cold brew is packaged in 750 ml can similar to wine bottles. It’s produced from single-origin Geisha beans—one of the most renowned and highly regarded Arabica varieties. The Stumptown’s 2015 Grand Cru was cold-brewed directly by the...