The Future of Coffee

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key findings

The Third Wave will give way to the Fourth as physical space loses its meaning

Emerging technologies and the changing world post-pandemic are pushing global coffee towards an era in which physical place matters less with each passing year. Good coffee can now increasingly be ordered and consumed anywhere, a re-thinking of occasions so important it could well prove to be the Fourth Wave of coffee.

Climate change and future demand will necessitate a radical rethinking of supply

The serious threat to the Coffee Belt from climate change combined with steadily rising global demand is going to put immense pressures on global supplies in the years to come. The solution will have to be a multi-pronged adaptation from multiple sources to plug the gaps.

Four major blocs now exert a dominant influence on the global coffee industry

A decade of intense consolidation has created four powerful blocs on the top of global coffee. The consolidation wave itself should be much slower in the coming years but the power of these four should only grow, exerting disproportionate influence on the industry.

Functional products must reckon with an anxious world

Energy will remain the core of functional coffee in the future, but this demand will splinter into many directions, from ultra-caffeination to mitigated energy. This will occur against a backdrop of spiking anxiety rates and sleep problems worldwide, which have curiously enough not yet led to a noticeable anti-caffeine backlash.

Category boundaries are collapsing

Many of the most exciting new coffee products of the future will be hard to categorise according to traditional understandings. Close partnerships in the alcoholic and soft drinks spaces will be one major source. Another will be targeting by occasion rather than category, which will see categories such as “premium single serve” develop as recognisable entities.