$150 Cup of Coffee: Specialty Coffee, Third Wave Cafes, and Gentrification in Portland, Oregon 1995-2020

Abstract

The idea that a customer would pay $150 for a cup of coffee seems to many people absurd, exploitative, and cringeworthy. Looking deeper the question becomes: where is a third wave café able to justify selling a cup of specialty coffee for such a high price? Also, what type of customer has the money and is willing to spend on what many would consider a luxury? There were only twenty-two cups available in the United States of this specialty grade coffee and the 100 pounds of these coffee beans had sold at auction for $2,000 per pound. It came from a single farm, single varietal in Panama. This thesis will describe the historical processes and events that led to third wave cafes producing specialty coffee in Portland, Oregon 1995-2020. The primary process that allowed this to happen is gentrification. This thesis will draw upon the works of many authors to explain the history of Oregon and Portland. It will then synthesize the theories of rent gap and stages of gentrification and show how it overlays with the history of Portland, Oregon. This thesis will also discuss the history of coffee domestication, production, and consumption from Yemen to Panama to Portland. There are strong parallels between the land use policies that allow for spaces of production to be exploited both in Portland and in coffee producing countries. This thesis will interrogate the common notion that gentrification causes displacement because former residents are displaced by newcomers. An important concept is the understanding of space and place. People do not say that they were “dis-spaced” but they were displaced. It will show how areas with early third wave cafes and then later ones within walking distances were part of the cause for increases in real estate prices relative to the walkable neighborhoods surrounding them. Former residents were priced out of their homes and neighborhoods, many forced to live in government subsided housing. Being priced out can occur because of increased rent and/or increase taxes that is then included in the rent owed. Third wave cafes and specialty coffee are just one setting among many in a food system, especially in Portland, that causes but also reinforces gentrification and displacement. This thesis finally will finally provide verification to the common belief of people that third wave cafes and specialty coffee are signs of both a gentrifying and gentrified neighborhood. It provides a historical explanation for this belief by examining the causes. It also answers how does specialty coffee define what it is and how it determines value. At the same time, it provides an explanation for why a cup of coffee is $150 and why it was available in one of the most heavily gentrified neighborhoods in Portland. Different stages of gentrification overlap with each other and therefore it is possible to say that a third wave café would have not moved into a space if it had not gentrified but also a third wave café can cause gentrification in other spaces.