There comes a time in every industry where monopolies are broken and suddenly there seems to be an abundance of  suppliers, all raising their game and pushing each other to new levels. This is what seems to be happening in the UK freshly roasted coffee marketplace.

Some of these suppliers have been around for many years but have been simmering beneath the radar, supplying local customers or a targeted audience, unable to break into the big-time due to the lack of social networking and cost-effective marketing opportunites, or in some cases the lack of a spotlight on their niche.

All of these factors have been consigned to history, with the growth of the speciality coffee sector, the advent of Podcasts / Twitter,  accessible websites, more interest taken by consumers about where there coffee has come from and the transparency of mechanisms used to buy and roast the coffee as well as the coverage of Barista competitions in the media.

Marketing costs have plummeted and consumer demand continues to grow. There is no sign that supply will overtake demand for freshly roasted coffee in the near future.

So where does this leave the consumer or home coffee drinker?

The answer is simple: With a choice of coffee from a growing list of quality roasters

With options for choosing which coffee to buy influenced by factors such as (in no particular order) Cup of Excellence, Single Origin, Blended, by Roast Profile, Brand, Organic, FairTrade, Rain Forest Alliance Certified, Soil Association Organic Standard (and the list goes on) how are the consumers not left bewildered?

We now agonise over which coffee to order each week for personal consumption, from which roaster, and how much. Price does not enter into the equation as we have not received a poorly roasted batch of coffee in the past 2 years so can virtually be assured of a well roasted coffee.

Peer reviews prove useful and the almost endless stream of tweets about what is currently being savoured certainly helps to educate about the new coffees entering the market and eliminate from our list of ‘wants’ based on the tastes described.

There is possibly too much choice at present – but don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing and I hope the choice continues to grow.