Change Is Brewing
Once scarce in Louisiana, third-wave coffee shops are flourishing from New Orleans to Shreveport
Coffee’s first wave in the United States was the age of mass production, with huge brands like Folgers coming to prominence. The second wave came with the introduction of café culture as popularized (and commoditized) by chains like Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, and PJ’s Coffee. Third-wave coffee culture is primarily concerned with sourcing the highest-quality beans possible from producers that meet higher ethical standards and serving coffee that highlights the natural flavors of those beans. Third-wave coffee is often lightly roasted, in contrast to first- and second-wave coffee; and its beans aren’t disguised by syrups or flavorings. (Nix the caramel and pumpkin spice.)
Whether you call it specialty, craft, or third wave, one thing is certain: a new style of coffee is becoming increasingly prominent in cities throughout Louisiana. From major population centers like New Orleans and Baton Rouge to smaller communities like Lafayette, Shreveport, Ruston, and Monroe, Louisiana’s specialty coffee shops are multiplying at a rate reminiscent of the recent craft beer boom; and, as an industry, specialty coffee faces some of the same challenges. Will a state that traditionally wakes up with a cup of Community Coffee or Mello Joy embrace a new coffee culture?
A Better Bean
Railway Coffee in downtown Ruston is one of Louisiana’s newest third-wave coffee shops. Founder and co-owner Michael Davis started out roasting his own coffee at home for friends and family before venturing into selling coffee at the Ruston Farmers Market. In March, he took on two partners and began remodeling an abandoned building just off of the square in downtown Ruston. The building had stood vacant for more than twenty years. On October 13, Railway welcomed its first customers.
“The goal was to add something of value to downtown Ruston,” Davis said. “We also wanted to expose people to better coffee. I was tired of drinking sugary stuff that made me feel terrible. When I roasted my first batch, I said to myself, I can’t go back. I have to share this with others.”
The coffee served at these shops is often single-origin, meaning that it can be traced back to a single country or a region or farm within that country. Specialty coffee shops often purchase beans through a direct-trade relationship with the farmers who grew the crop. Those beans are then roasted with an artisanal attention to detail and prepared for the customer by a barista who approaches coffee in the same manner that a chef approaches food.
Railway Coffee works with an importer that sends buyers on sourcing trips to coffee-growing countries like Colombia, Brazil, India, and Ethiopia to identify farms that are producing coffee in a responsible and ethical manner. The beans produced by these farms are graded on a standardized scale by a governing body, the Specialty Coffee Association of America, and beans that receive a grade of 80 or higher are brought to market as specialty coffee.
“We’re paying a premium for specialty coffee beans; but in return, the farmers that grew those beans are able to better themselves, their families, and their communities,” Davis said. “It’s better for everyone.”
How Does Louisiana Take Its Coffee?
For coffee consumers in Louisiana, the differences between first-, second-, and third-wave coffee aren’t as easily defined as they are in many parts of the country. Community Coffee, which ranks as the country’s largest family-owned coffee brand, was also the first American coffee roaster to buy directly from an African farming cooperative—an incredibly progressive move in 2002. Louisiana has an uncommon attachment to second-wave coffee as well, with New Orleans-based PJ’s Coffee dating back to 1978. It would be fair to say that the first two waves of coffee are more deeply entrenched in Louisiana than in many places.
At Rêve Coffee Roasters, in downtown Lafayette, General Manager Carter Liles says that the mission of their shop is to complement—not replace—the coffee that many Louisianans grew up drinking. “From the beginning, we didn’t want it to be ‘us against them,’” Liles said. “We wanted to provide another way of looking at coffee while maintaining some of those cultural norms of coffee-drinking in Louisiana.”
As wholesale roasters, Rêve supplies shops from Ruston to Lake Charles with traditional Louisiana-style products, including darker roasts and chicory blends. At the café, however, the focus is on third-wave-style coffee, which means single-origin beans that are often served as a pour-over or an espresso. Their customer base, which is “about a fifty-fifty mix” of customers who are interested in specialty coffee and customers who aren’t, requires that baristas be ready to provide as much—or as little—of an intro to specialty coffee as a particular customer may desire.
“We’re paying a premium for specialty coffee beans; but in return, the farmers that grew those beans are able to better themselves, their families, and their communities,” Davis said. “It’s better for everyone.”
“A lot of people have the misconception that we just cater to coffee snobs or college kids, but that’s not what we want at all,” Liles said. “We want everyone to be able to enjoy what we do, whether they’re interested in exploring the world of specialty coffee or they just want a simple, good cup of coffee. We meet our customers where they are.”
Nearly every sizable city in Louisiana now has specialty coffee. New Orleans is home to dozens of popular shops including Mammoth Espresso, French Truck Coffee, Mojo Coffee House, and HiVolt. In Baton Rouge, Highland Coffees roasts its own beans, and Magpie Cafe serves artfully prepared beverages in the Italian espresso bar tradition. Shreveport’s Rhino Coffee started out as an upstart located across the street from a popular Starbucks location and has rapidly expanded to three locations, including a spacious new shop in the heart of downtown. In Monroe, RoeLa Roaster is a small shop with a big reputation for turning out quality cold-brew products and single-origin roast coffee by the pound. Fledgling “pop-up” third wave coffee bars like Kern Has Coffee in Shreveport and Union Mill Coffee in Monroe seem poised to join the ranks in 2017.
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As the quantity of specialty coffee being roasted in Louisiana increases, so, it seems, does the quality. Four coffees produced by Mojo Coffee House in 2016 received the highest reviews possible from CoffeeReview.com, a leading coffee review site and buying guide. In September, Rêve Coffee Roasters took home a bronze medal in the single-origin espresso category at the Compak Golden Bean Awards, the world’s largest coffee roasting competition.
“It’s a pretty great feeling, knowing that the coffee we’re roasting right here at our little facility in Lafayette is standing up to some of the best specialty coffee from around the country,” Liles said. “That award gives us some confidence as we take it to the next level.”