Gone are the days when, to enjoy a creamy cappuccino, you had to pick out an outfit, smooth out your morning hair, convince a friend to join you, then head to your neighbourhood café and wait for the barista to whip it up for you.

You can still do that if you want to, of course—but it seems like less and less of us do.

Cafés are what sparked our love for coffee, yet we eventually grew to adore our daily cup of joe so much that we’ve now gone ahead and moved it straight into our homes. How, and why, did this happen? How did coffee shift from something enjoyed strictly while out and about to a ritual so personal no barista can quite replicate it? Let’s try and trace the reasons behind this tranformation—and possibly grow to appreciate our familiar home brewing routines even more along the way.

Control and Comfort over Café Convenience

The growing preference that coffee drinkers show towards a home-brewed cuppa isn’t anecdotal; it’s statistical. In the U.S., for example, home coffee consumption is reported to have grown from 79% to 85% between 2017 and 2021. A similar trend is observed in Europe, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down anytime soon.

What’s the story behind the statistics? It’s, predictably, the pandemic. With access to our favourite coffee shops having suddenly been limited, the brewing ritual had nowhere else to go but home. We’ve built new routines around our daily cuppa; we’ve bought coffee makers, milk frothers, and grinders; we’ve had plenty of time to experiment and eventually find out that, with some practice, homemade cappuccinos can be just as good as those served at trendy cafés! There’s no rush, no queueing, no upcharge for almond milk… No wonder that, when the coffee shops reopened, some of us have lost the taste for the café experience already.

Growing demand for home brewing equipment has meant a growing supply of reliable, affordable, user-friendly gadgets. Armed with smart coffee machines, handy barista tools, electric milk frothers, and high-precision grinders, we’re now able to tailor homemade brews to our exact taste with ease. The quiet domestic ritual of making ourselves a cuppa is that much more customisable, putting nobody else but us behind the steering wheel—or rather the portafilter. To put it simply, with home brewing being much easier to master, there’s quite simply no reason not to!

From Social Spaces to Social Media

In addition to steering us back towards our homes, the pandemic guided us onto social media platforms. Clubs, pubs, restaurants and cafés were replaced by Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. With our ability to connect physically being restricted, social media turned into a veritable social hub, a means to share our lives with others and see what they are up to—so, instead of chatting over a cup of coffee, we were now sending pictures of our home-brewed creations back and forth.

Coffee has retained its social aspect, but the ways in which we socialise have changed. Nowadays, the visual appeal of coffee is as important as its flavour. Sure, you can snap a photo of the latest concoction that Starbucks has come up with… But how much cooler is it to grace your Instagram wall with a picture of your very own, carefully curated home coffee corner, or a caramel latte you can proudly say you’ve whipped up yourself? Whether it’s dalgona coffee, matcha latte, or espresso tonic, home brewing is the latest trend, turning our kitchens into personalised coffee spaces that are meant to be shared, seen, and admired online.

Brew-It-Yourself: Coffee as a Craft

Not only has there been a shift in how we share our coffee experiences—the manner in which we craft them is now different too. While previous generations saw coffee primarily as a ready-made product sold at cafés, the young people of today tend to view it as a DIY project. This is part of a broader “do-it-yourself” trend: tired of mass-produced, standardised items, Gen Z and millennials alike have grown to value the custom-made and the authentic, as well as to appreciate the opportunity to gain a new skill offered by DIY undertakings.

More than just a caffeinated beverage, our daily cup of coffee is nowadays a chance to express ourselves. How we brew and consume it is part of our identity—and this identity is far more unique and original when it isn’t in the hands of a barista. Choosing to prepare coffee at home has turned into a statement, a mark of somebody who refuses to settle for the bare minimum, and instead is on the lookout for one-of-a-kind experiences that can only be forged in the comfort of a familiar kitchen. From graceful Chemex rituals to countertop milk frothers for that silky-smooth milk foam, the way in which we craft our coffee is now more than ever part of who we are.

Hooray for Home Brews!

Whether it’s a chatty cuppa at a corner café or an elaborate home brewing ritual, it’s clear that coffee isn’t going anywhere. In fact, by moving into our kitchens, it further cemented its role in our daily lives. All that’s left for us to do is go ahead and enjoy it: housemates this good are rare to come by, after all!

Read more:
From Cafés to Kitchens: Why Are New Coffee Rituals Moving into Our Homes?