Mass marketCannedConvenience
First Wave — coffee as commodity
Late 1800s → 1960s
Folgers, Maxwell House, Nescafé. Coffee became cheap, shelf-stable, and ubiquitous — vacuum-sealed cans and instant granules in every kitchen. Quality wasn't the point; availability was. The blueprint here was the supermarket, not the cupping table.
CRAFT NOTE
Without First Wave logistics — drying, shipping, blending at scale — none of the later waves would have had a planet-wide audience.