At-home coffee shops, the foodies’ new craze
DecodingsOn social media and especially TikTok (obviously), coffee has entered yet another era: coffee shops … at home. Candice Alvarez, NellyRodi’s Lifestyle, Food and Hospitality Consultant, explains the phenomenon.
The fascination for coffee
In recent years, coffee, like wine and tea, has become simultaneously more accessible and more sophisticated.
Trendy coffee shops with innovative concepts have sprung up in big cities around the world. With peanut butter coffee at Buddy Buddy, rose or pistachio at Café Nuances and the simply very delicious coffee at Ten Belles, there’s something to entice even the most hesitant about coffee’s bitter taste. Very quickly our weekly iced latte with oat milk has become a ritual.
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Next came the awareness that we don’t need to restrict ourselves to coffee shops since we can make great coffee at home. So, we’re getting set up as apprentice baristas with a quality coffee machine, carefully sourced beans, a milk frother, a stainless steel pitcher (for the art of lattes) and even specialized scales for measuring beans with precision. After the apprentice stage, we’ve moved on to becoming experts (or highly-addicted-to-coffee nerds).
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Oatly, the plant-based milk brand, has become the coffee lover’s top ally, engaging with them as if they were professionals. Their Barista Edition recreates the perfection of the creamy froth in cafés (and so flatters egos).
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No more €6 coffee in a shop, it’s time for (almost) free coffee at home
Though inflation plays an undeniable role in behavioral change, it’s not the only reason behind this trend. Coffee brings people together, and that can happen at home.
“Come have coffee at our house.” is a phrase young generations often heard their parents say, but not so much their contemporaries – until now. Like a return to simplicity and something more authentic, they’re romanticizing the very simple idea of inviting friends to their home for a hot drink.
Thanks to more flexible working schedules (remote working, freelancing), hospitality is being reinvented with opportunities in the daytime and not just evenings. Cocktails are being replaced with afternoon coffee, and living spaces are being transformed into little coffee shops: from armchairs to personalized cups and even a menu of drinks and snacks, all with each individual’s artistic touch. We’re having fun branding our interiors, and the brand concept is being pushed to the extreme.
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More than bringing people together, these at-home coffee shops let an entire generation of self-employed workers succeed in creating their dream: opening their own space, but without making large investments or worrying about the future. In our “Life at Home” study, our home and lifestyle experts take a careful look at how people are reappropriating their homes, for example by working from home or renting rooms on Airbnb. Home-based cafés are the logical extension of the trend of making one’s space profitable.
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Though the practice is currently free, it’s absolutely possible to imagine a remuneration system to cover the cost (coffee, milk, pastries) along with a small extra like a tip. Brands can also participate in the trend’s lucrative possibilities – apartments can be their new touch points and each person an ambassador.
