Slow Down America!
(And Smell The Coffee)
My wife and I started brewing and serving high quality 100% Ethiopian Specialty Coffee at the Grand Lake Farmers’ Market in Oakland, California. The inspiration for our coffee business came from our shared experience of drinking flavorful coffee in small cups, sitting down, and chatting with friends and relatives. Chatting over morning or afternoon coffee is a chance to slow down, and to connect with others. In most parts of the coffee-cultured world, people do not go to the local coffee shops to get “to-go” coffee, or to check their emails on their smart phones. Rather, they go to the coffee houses to enjoy a good cup of coffee among friends.
Not so in America. According to the National Coffee Association (NCA)[1], Americans consume around 400 million cups (paper) of coffee a day; that is 146 billion cups of coffee each year! Fortunately, the to-go paper cup culture that is so familiar in America is still a rarity in the rest of the world. As with most anything American, however, many people around the globe are picking up the culture of the to-go coffee. Still, for most of us who grew up outside of America, it is much preferred to sit in a cafe, observe the scene, talk to friends, and enjoy a good tasting cup of coffee. This, of course, implies that we all have to slow down.
One of our clients at the farmer’s market calls our style of serving coffee “Slowing Down America.” Naturally, the to-go coffee culture allows busy customers to quickly go in and out of the coffee shops. In that case, the coffee itself becomes the object of enjoyment. Seeing people drink coffee out of oversized paper cups and stainless-steel mugs has become the ordinary in America. Drinking coffee while driving cars, walking, exercising, talking on the phone, and while working on computers is now considered the norm. What is lost in all the rush and hurry of the to-go coffee culture is the experience of enjoying a good cup of coffee. Not just drinking coffee, but savoring its aroma and taste.
Coffee should not be consumed because it is cheaper to buy it in oversized cups, or because it enhances one’s health, or because it is a remedy for some ailments. Coffee drinking is about the ritual and sensual experience of smelling the volatile aroma of the roasted green beans, tasting the smooth and silky flow of the bitter-sweet brew in one’s mouth, gazing into the dark and mysterious liquid, and immersing oneself into the chit-chat that surrounds the coffee tables.
Coffee drinking is not about quantity, as Starbucks would have us believe, but about quality. Coffee drinking is about tasting good flavorful coffee, taking a break from one’s work, socializing with friend and neighbors, making new acquaintances, and enriching each day with a coffee experience. Every visit to a coffee shop is about enjoying the tastes and flavors of good coffee, and slowing down to take pleasure in being among other humans. In the true sense of the words — taking a coffee break!
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Undoubtedly, a great number of Americans regularly consume coffee. The NCA reports that in 2008, 54% of the adult population of the United States drank coffee daily. Slowly, a discerning coffee consumer culture is emerging as shown by NCA statistics that estimates 18% of these coffee drinkers prefer specialty coffee. This trend towards slowing down, indulging in conversations, and a preference for well brewed coffee, was what Starbucks had in mind when it started. But Starbucks never finished the job.
Although Americans are newly waking up and smelling out the quality of good tasting coffee, millions of them are still sipping their coffee out of paper cups. The trend in the industry has been to make the paper cup more environmentally friendly, without altering the basic premise of the to-go culture. Coffee cups and mugs that are bio-degradable, and others that are constructed from recyclables, stainless-steel metal, corn-based plastics, and reusable material have been marketed as a solution to the disposable cup.[2] None of these solutions are remedies to what is fundamentally lacking in the to-go coffee culture. They do not slow down the coffee drinker.
The fact is that in the last 20 years or so, a great many specialty coffee houses have opened up throughout America to meet a growing demand for high quality specialty coffee. Our own Bay Area only ranks second to the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington in having the highest number of coffee shops in America[3]. In the last 20 years, the general trend towards demand for specialty coffee has seen an increase of 20% per year.[4]
For me, good coffee begins at the beginning with the red cherry clumps hanging on the tender stalks of the coffee plant. When hand-picked, tendered delicately, and roasted skillfully, there is no mach in culinary universe to the aroma and taste of good coffee. Coffee should always be brewed from freshly ground beans, drunk immediately, in small portions, and from warm ceramic cups. Above all else, well brewed coffee will appeal pleasurably to our senses what with those mysterious black and golden colors, the sensual aromas of fruits and nuts, and the smooth and delicate flavors one experience in the mouth. And then there is the chit-chat, the friendly hum of conversations and sounds that envelope the coffee house. Slow down America, and smell the coffee!
[1] http://coffee-statistics.com/
[2] http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/storm-in-a-paper-cup/ (Our world 2.0)
[3] http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/americas-most-caffeinated-cities-102011/
[4] http://www.scaaevent.org/PDF/Press%20Kit/2011/Facts%20and%20Figures.pdf
