From the catacombs: David Nigel Flynn, "Jus de Chaussette" (2012 Vienna)

After a successful jaunt up to Manchester for the UK National Coffee Throwing Competition and Tamper Tantrum Live at Cup North this weekend, our attention has turned fully to Paris. Known for its food, wine, and café culture, Paris’ specialty coffee culture has gone on a very visible journey from having a practically non-existent specialty coffee scene, the early development phase, and the point at which Paris was recognized, on an international level, as having a specialty coffee scene.

Today’s talk from the catacombs is a truly fascinating one, offering a snapshot of the Parisian specialty coffee scene in 2012, right around the time it was starting to gain traction. David Nigel Flynn’s talk, “Jus de Chaussette” (“Sock Juice”), looks at the French culture of taste and of tradition, why specialty coffee is so hard for the French to swallow, and ways in which specialty coffee shops can frame the conversation in the way that doesn’t make traditionalists defensive. There are some real pearls of wisdom in this talk that, despite the fact that it is directly tied to a specific time and place, are still incredibly relevant to our discussions of specialty coffee today.

We’re excited to bring this talk back for two reasons: (1) we’re planning on visiting a tonne of shops next week and want to see how much of an impact the introduction of “Jus de Chausette” has had on the French specialty coffee scene and, (2) it’s making us ask ourselves, in light of recent and plentiful conversations about third wave stagnation, how much have we actually progressed since 2012?