The past, present and future of New York’s coffee scene

Coffee professional, journalist and author Ever Meister explores what coffee means to New Yorkers and how the specialty scene has learned to become more inclusive

A lot of people come to coffee a bit unexpectedly. Like so many folks, I got my first coffee job as a barista because I was studying to be a journalist in print media in college and needed to learn to speak with people so I could conduct interviews. I’m naturally very shy, so it was good to have such a public-facing job.
 
I lived in New York for most of my formative years, moving to the city in 2004. It was such a great time to get heavily involved in specialty coffee and a new wave of cool coffee shops doing latte art.