Diversify your Instagram feed with these five coffee hashtags.
BY MARK VAN STREEFKERK
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cover photo by Lee from Canva
From the editor: In an article in the June + July 2019 issue of Barista Magazine, Mark Van Streefkerk explores the endless possibilities of making your coffee brand stand out on Instagram. (Read it for free online with the e-pub, or download it with the BMag App.) To go along with the article, here are some hashtags for coffee pros to check out on the ’Gram.
Instagram is the ideal place to document and share pictures of silky rosettas, sleek espresso machines, and vibrant cafés. If you love seeing coffee on your feed as much as we do, it’s likely that you’re already following many favorites who reliably post excellent coffee-centric content. Since the end of 2017, however, the platform has enabled users to follow hashtags as well as profiles. Recently, #coffee has been tagged over 109 million times, and other popular coffee-related hashtags include #coffeelife, #coffeeshopvibes, and #latteart. If you want to diversify your scrolling beyond brunch flat lays and microfoam ferns, follow these five hashtags to level up your #coffee feed.
#futureofcoffee: This hashtag boasts a modest 722 posts but focuses on promoting sustainable coffee production in the face of climate crisis. This tag is used frequently by World Coffee Research (@wcoffeeresearch) and Caravela Coffee (@caravelacoffee). You’ll find pictures of Latin American coffee farms and information about efforts to mitigate coffee’s impact on climate change.
#coffeegrowers: You won’t see any latte art in this hashtag—it’s all about growers and farmers. Here, you’ll find pictures of plantations all over the world, with coffee flowers and bright red cherries waiting to be picked. Enjoying your favorite coffee before work? Scroll through this hashtag and take a peek at where it comes from. If you have favorite single-origin roasts, there are hashtags for those too, like #guatemalancoffee or #indocoffee.
#thetrendybarista: Latte art aficionados, welcome! Following this hashtag will get you lots of pictures and videos of baristas pouring amazing, picture-perfect designs on the surfaces of lattes, macchiatos, hot chocolates, and basically anything with foam.
#womenincoffee: Here, you’ll find diverse representation of women at every stage of coffee production; it’s an essential hashtag to follow for bosses, roasters, farmers, and baristas. Frequently used by the amazing @womenincoffeeproject, you’ll get extra points if you follow both.
#dogsandcoffee / #catsandcoffee: Because we can’t choose just one! Follow these hashtags for pics of your favorite four-legged friends, fur-babies and cat cafés. Curious whether more coffee folks are dog people or cat people? The fact that #catsandcoffee has over 28,000 tags and #dogsandcoffee has only 12,000 could strongly indicate that we prefer our feline friends.
Honorable mentions:
#coffeeinblack: This one’s for sheer aesthetics. There aren’t a lot of people in these pictures, but there are plenty of slick pourovers, industrial and minimal cafés, and coffee table flat lays. The colors run chillier here overall, with lots of wood and black. #badlatteart: There’s a learning curve, OK? Even world-class baristas were once beginners. Consider this hashtag a hilarious and refreshing antidote to the over-saturation of pristine #coffeelife Instagramming!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Van Streefkerk is Barista Magazine’s social media content developer and a frequent contributor. He is also a freelance writer, social media manager, and novelist based out of Seattle. If Mark isn’t writing, he’s probably biking to his favorite vegan restaurant. Find out more on his website.