When cafes split themselves along milk versus black coffee lines, home baristas drop thousands of dollars on a grinder, and brunch enthusiasts queue for a social media-famous iced coffee drink, it’s not a stretch to say we’re riding the fourth wave of coffee.

Caffeine is firmly entrenched as a daily luxury among Australians, and we expect it to be as bespoke as a couture item. Last financial year, IBISWorld data shows we spent more than $10 billion in roughly 33,000 cafes around the country.

The local coffee scene is getting even more specialised – and not just in our cafes. Making coffee at home, a daily act of grace during the pandemic years, has led to a groundswell of budding baristas who are now honing their craft.

From gadgetry to help improve your home espresso to unbridled creativity in the menus and operations of neighbourhood cafes, these are the biggest trends in coffee now.

Cocktails meet coffee

Cafes are coming up with coffee cocktails that would make a bartender proud. A Cosmopolitan at Industry Beans in Melbourne and Sydney includes cascara, the drink made from coffee cherries, the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean. Sydney’s Sammy Junior is the literal definition of a coffee bar, offering brews, breakfast and lunch staples by day, and cocktails later in the week, including four boozy coffee drinks.

Black is in fashion

Single O’s black coffee sales when the first cafe opened in Sydney’s Surry Hills 20 years ago (their beans are sold Australia-wide now) were 1-2 per cent of the total. “Now it’s like 25 per cent of all coffee we sell,” says CEO Mike Brabant.

Its cafes even have filter coffee on tap, where a customer can choose the coffee they want after reading about its flavour profile on a little badge attached to each tap. Josh Passaro of Will & Co has seen customers who normally drink flat whites gravitate towards the novelty of their coffee taps to order a cold brew.

Sample Coffee Roaster’s orders for black coffee have also gone up. “People are realising how delicious [black coffee] can be when it’s done right,” says owner Reuben Mardan.

Prices will stabilise – mostly

While 2023 could be remembered as the year of bill shock, this year might have better news, at least for coffee. Industry figures believe that more steep price hikes on flat whites are unlikely this year. Brabant forecasts rises on “premium drinks”, such as creative iced coffees and super small-batch single origins, rather than “core drinks”.

Reusable cups return, and that’s not all

Several cafes, including Padre in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, say that the use of reusable cups has crept back up, after the pandemic put a halt to the habit. Single O’s cafes in Sydney and Brisbane have a shelf of reusable cups for those who forgot their own. Adding to the low-waste credentials, the cups are imperfect cast-offs from local ceramicists.

Brabant says he’s also seeing cafes introduce recycled plastic cups; adopt compostable packaging, especially for coffee bags; and refurbish their coffee machines, rather than buying something brand new.

“People are expecting the full hog now. It’s not enough to just have a reusable cup library,” says Brabant.

Using every part of the bean

Many cafes in Victoria, including Single O’s wholesale customers, have their spent coffee grounds collected by Reground, which sends them to community gardens where they improve the soil, instead of remaining in landfill to emit methane.

Reground has collected 1.4 million kilograms of ground coffee since 2015, and says demand has grown by 40 per cent in the last 12 months alone.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing coffee drinkers, members of the public and hospitality workers putting pressure on their roasters to consider the full environmental impact of their products and processes,” says Fiona Parsons from Reground’s communications team.

Specialist coffee meets convenience

Out-of-home coffee products – coffee that can be made on the run – are taking flight, as people’s lives incorporate more travel. Convenient mini filters that need no more than hot water to deliver a quality coffee are available from the likes of Single O, Sample, Padre, and more.

“Even when you go camping with friends these days, someone will pull out a specialty [coffee] product that you can just add water to and everyone will appreciate it … instant won’t do,” says Brabant of Single O.

Explosion in home baristas

Roasters and cafes are seeing sales of beans and brewing equipment go up, with Single O seeing a rise of 30 per cent on bean sales after the pandemic years. In 2023 alone, Padre’s online coffee sales increased 24 per cent.

“People are definitely having a look at where they’re spending their money. Buying a bag of coffee to brew at home is a more economical option a lot of the time,” says Georgia Folker of Padre.

“As people realised that coffee is not difficult to make – it can be difficult to make excellent, but it’s not difficult to make – they saw how much more cost-effective it is to make coffee at home,” says Sample Coffee’s Reuben Mardan.

Essential espresso gadgets

Thought you just needed an espresso machine to make coffee at home? Not any more. The most committed home baristas have drawers full of brewing accessories to achieve the holy grail of consistent coffee, every time.

WDTs (Weiss distribution tools), which look a little like a shaving brush except instead of soft strands they have thin needles, are pushed into the coffee you have freshly ground into your basket to break up clumps.

Making coffee at home, a daily act of grace during the pandemic years, has led to a groundswell of budding baristas who are now honing their craft.

Next you might reach for your distributor, which creates an even bed of coffee. You’ll tamp (press) it, perhaps with a calibrated tamper that applies exactly the right amount of pressure, removing any human aberrations.

It’s all in aid of the most even extraction of those espresso grounds as possible.

The daily grind

But, if it’s a toss up between all of these tools and an excellent grinder, choose the grinder every time, says Peter Mot of Alternative Brewing, an online retailer of coffee equipment.

“If you’re going to look at upgrading any particular part of the setup to get a better drink, improving the grinder is ultimately going to get you a better result.”

There are now grinders with interchangeable burrs (the things that grind your beans), which allow customisation based on whether you’re brewing espresso or filter, and speed adjustments. A faster grind often creates a more uniform particle size.

Some of these can cost around $2500. And yet grinders are showing the highest sales across all categories at Alternative Brewing.

Airtight storage

Newsflash: the fridge is out, vacuum is in. Airtight coffee canisters with a vacuum seal are a now common sight on the benches of brew nerds. They do the all-important work of making sure moisture, odours, air and heat stay away from your beans, which begin to deteriorate as soon as they leave the roastery. The best vacuum-sealed containers are opaque, as light also affects the quality of beans.