When Chase & Sanborn introduced sealed tins of coffee to the U.S. in 1880, consumers didn't care where the contents came from—just that they would keep longer. Likewise, exotic origins weren't the hook for Nescafé's instant coffee launch in 1937; convenience was.

That started changing with a Dutch immigrant named Alfred Peet, who opened a tiny coffeehouse in Berkeley, California, in 1966. His small batches of dark roasts caught on; customers started caring about beans, not containers. Seeing what was percolating, two of his employees quit to open a small Seattle shop called Starbucks in 1971.

More than four decades later, with Starbucks having flooded the market, a backlash against chain brews has begun. Serious coffee drinkers are clamoring for singular flavors. Independent roasters are selling "microlots" of relatively rare coffees from miniscule farms around the world. And coffee shops are offering beans with backstories. Mass-produced varietals like Sumatra or Yirgacheffe are so 10 years ago; savants now seek out coffees from Finca Nueva Armenia farm in Guatemala or Kenya's Gatina Cooperative.

"We're mirroring the transition the wine industry went through in the '60s and '70s when people went from drinking glorified jug wines to appreciating 'taste of place' of particular vineyards," says Mark Inman, president of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and founder of Sebastopol, California-based organic roaster Tailor Maid Farms. Though microlot producers account for just $20 million of the $13 billion specialty-coffee pie, "they're the ones pushing the boundaries of price and quality."

It's no longer enough to know the difference between tall, grande, and venti. Here's what you need to know to keep the mud off your face.

Go Back to Basics
Who ordered the double half-caf low-fat soy mochaccino? Not a coffee geek. Purist drinkers and coffeehouses, like New York's Ninth Street Espresso, are shunning novelty formulations and add-ons that distract from coffee's inherent flavors. So get reacquainted with the standards, all of which use the same beans, but different preparations: Espresso is a thicker coffee made by pressurizing hot water through fine grounds; it's characterized by rich crema, or foam. Cappuccino is equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and frothed milk. Feeling lightweight? Change the equation to two-thirds steamed milk, one-third espresso for a latte.  

Avoid a Coffee Con
Arabica beans account for 75 percent of the world's coffee production. Grown at high altitudes, delicate Arabicas yield smoother, less acidy, more complex coffees than hardier, cheaper Robusta beans. But unscrupulous packagers have been known to dilute Arabica blends with Robusta—a good reason to stick with whole-bean coffee from trusted roasters. Chicago-based Intelligentsia and Portland-based Stumptown are two of the bigger ones.

Bean Around the World
At least corporate coffee made for simple shopping. Today, when faced with a choice between, say, Guatemalan Huehuetenango and Tanzanian Peaberry, what's a caffeine addict to do? Use rules of thumb from Peter Giuliano, director of coffee at Durham, North Carolina-based supplier Counter Culture Coffee. African coffees tend to taste "intense and fruity." Latin American brews are more balanced and clean, "with a character Americans think of as coffeelike." Asian versions—Aceh, in Northern Sumatra, is a big source—are earthier, with low acidity and a big body.