It’s International Coffee Day once again, and it’s that wonderful time of the year when we can “officially” celebrate our favorite caffeinated beverage. Roasters have offers on bean orders, while cafés traditionally have promotions on coffee orders. This year’s celebrations may be admittedly more subdued because of the ongoing pandemic, so instead of getting to enjoy coffee offers in cafés, the online space has really become the go-to destination to explore and enjoy these limited time offers.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do miss getting to visit cafés. Whether it was getting to visit new ones or simply visiting old friends, the café hopping experience was a part of my regularly scheduled programming. Travels locally and overseas always had a coffee crawl as part of the agenda, and the rule I gave myself was to NOT bring coffee brewing equipment on travels where there would be at least one specialty coffee shop. Given the limited mobility available, I decided to give myself some form of a celebration by ordering some local specialty coffee (more about this in the upcoming second installment of A taste of some Great Local Coffees), looking forward to trying out another brand spanking 2020 lot. If not for anything else, the prospect that more great local coffees are getting to shine at the bars of home brewers is the only consolation I derive from not being able to get out and café hop. If the online space is able to magnify what your specialty café could not because of time, location, service, or a multitude of other factors, then I hope that more enthusiasts and purveyors of great coffee get to share what they know and the byproducts of that knowledge to an audience that is increasingly excited at making better coffee at home.

The growing number of home brewers gives me hope that our favorite beverage will find itself not just in more homes but in more minds as well. I believe that the local coffee industry and its stakeholders will stand to gain not just in the growing number of consumers, but in the growing number of participants as well. The number of coffee roasters and coffee equipment retailers is steadily growing and catering to the every growing demands of hopped up caffeine heads like myself, and with any luck and a lot of coffee, the coffee industry grow exponentially when things get back to normal.

Happy International Coffee Day everyone. Cheers.