Third Wave Wichteln is back for a fourth year of Secret Santa-ing specialty coffee to new friends in far off places, and the deadline to throw your name in the hat is nigh approaching.
Third Wave Wichteln works like Secret Santa, except on a much larger scale. You sign up, the names get shuffled around in the big hat known as the internet, and then redistributed to the participating parties. You are the secret Santa for the person whose name you received, and thus they are the person for whom you buy a gift (and whoever drew your name will do the same for you).
But the Tee Double-Dubs is a little different. For one, it’s 100% international, meaning that the redistributing of names isn’t entirely random and you will not receive a person from your own country. And more importantly, you can only send specialty coffee, hence the “Third Wave” Wichteln.
The site presumes those taking part know what constitutes third wave coffee, but does have a handy dandy map of over 1,500 places to buy specialty coffee worldwide just in case. There are a few other restrictions on the sort of coffee that can be sent, though. It must be whole bean coffee from a single origin or estate and it must be roasted (for filter, no espresso please) no more than five days before shipping. And no decaf, because don’t be that guy.
Sign up ends Thursday, December 1st at 11:59am CET. It’s a pretty fun way to try new coffees from roasters you’ve never heard of and to do the same for someone thousands of miles away.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via Third Wave Wichteln
