Coffee enters a 'Golden Era' thanks to different types of beans and advanced processes

Coffee, or the way we know it now, dates back to the 10th century. Back then, caffeine seekers weren't strolling out to their local cafe to get their fix exactly as they want it, or ordering packaged beans ready for hand-grinding from Amazon.com. These early lovers of the buzz were the ancestors of the Oromo ethnic tribe from Ethiopia who noticed the stimulation associated with the coffee plant.

However, it was really the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in the 15th century that properly started to explore coffee as a daily ritual - particularly enjoying its perk giving intoxication during spiritual rituals. Since these early days, the processes, the flavour and the expressions of coffee have changed dramatically and we are at what we might call the "Golden Era" of coffee. As Steve McCurry wrote in his book From These Hands: A Journey Along The Coffee Trail, "[Coffee] is about how we live, about how people interact with one another".

"We're in a moment of coffee history where coffee has become higher quality and tastes better than ever before," says Sam Penix, owner of Everyman Espresso in New York. Penix, who often consults with the coffee squad of the world, says the third wave of coffee has been about quality where the "hard work of every player of the supply chain is taken into account" and the next wave will be about "quality on a bigger scale".