Folk Coffee: Reviving Slow Coffee Culture and Latin American Traditions in the Modern Café
(Room 24 C)
11 Apr 26
11:00 AM
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11:45 AM
In a culture defined by speed and consumption, the concept of Folk Coffee requires us to bring coffee back to the people. It calls us to return to the roots of coffee as a communal, reflective, and culturally rich practice. This lecture explores the deep connections between Latin American coffee traditions and the global “slow” coffee culture movements that once defined social life; such as sobremesas, salons, and other spaces of dialogue and leisure. Drawing from Latin American rituals of hospitality and shared experience, Folk Coffee reimagines how these traditions can inspire a more sustainable, intentional, and people-centered coffee culture today.
The lecture also considers how shared coffee education, through cuppings, workshops, and community tastings, echoes oral traditions and fosters accessibility across diverse communities. By treating education as a collective and story-driven process, the modern specialty coffee movement is reintroducing human connection and inclusivity into what was once an exclusive field.
Attendees will examine how cafés are already shifting away from grab-and-go service toward spaces of learning, ritual, and connection, and how embracing a “folk” mindset can deepen both community engagement and environmental care.