Once upon a time, if you wanted coffee, you got it diner-style — black, hot, and poured by someone who called you “hon.” Maybe you’d get cream or sugar if you were feeling fancy. Back then, your coffee likely came from a can with a name like Folgers, Maxwell House, or Hills Brothers — roasted in industrial ovens the size of small nations.

Then, in the 1960s, a little Bay Area shop called Peet’s Coffee decided coffee should taste like something other than burnt toast. They started roasting in small batches, becoming the “grandfather of specialty coffee.”

By the 1970s, a few scrappy startups in Seattle — looking at you, Starbucks — were experimenting with beans, steam wands, and the concept of paying $3 for caffeine. By the 1980s and ’90s, small roasters were popping up everywhere,

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