Coffee video: Gourmet coffee industry flourishes

Here’s a interesting video from the Food and Drink portion of the Wall Street Journal’s website that reports, from a British point of view, particularly in the London area, that even in these down economic times, the gourmet coffee industry is heading upward. While many are cutting back in other areas, some are discovering the limitations of their morning coffee and are moving into more specialty coffee, driving the growth of this burgeoning industry of farmers, importers, roasters, retailers, coffee shops, and coffee equipment manufacturers.

This video notes the trend that I’ve noticed locally where people are moving away from the larger chains and more toward the locally-owned independent coffee shops that work hard to focus on the quality and uniqueness of their coffee.  As Matthew Clark of Sacred Coffee notes in the video, consumers are coming to a point where they’ve had enough Starbucks that they are willing to move into a more refined view of the coffee they are drinking and try out new styles, flavors and beans to learn more.   The industry has Starbucks to thank for bringing all of these consumers to the table, but ultimately, the consumers may move away from Starbucks to more local shops.

Thanks to @steveoleolson for pointing me to this video.