SPECIALTY COFFEES. A couple years ago, an article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that coffee sellers from the sixties to the nineties let a generation of coffee drinkers get away. Coffee should have been a rite of passage drink for teenagers. The sellers of beer and soft drinks successfully targeted the youth market, while coffee sellers settled for bland taste and staid marketing. Starbucks changed this with variety, new products such as Frappuccinos, and higher quality. In our family, the next generation has avoided coffee for the most part. I have a nephew and niece who refuse to drink coffee because, they claim, of their righteous horror at what coffee addiction has done to their parents. I regret this because, as Malcolm Gladwell argued recently, in a brilliant and important essay, coffee created the modern world by facilitating the Industrial Revolution. I still have hopes that my daughter, who appreciates the coffees Starbucks has created, will become a coffee drinker.
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I consider myself a coffee drinker–I’m just not a coffee addict! I get enough headaches without having to contend from the ones arising from caffeine deprivation. I limit my coffee drinking to several times a week so I don’t get dependent on it. However, here and there in college I must admit I couldn’t get out of bed unless I knew I had a Frappuccino waiting for me.
Now I’m curious about which traits a person must have in order to be a coffee drinker in your eyes. To me, a coffee drinker must find the taste of coffee pleasurable and enjoy the idea of drinking it. In that way, I fit my definition. (Also I joined the coffee lover’s group on Facebook, if that means anything.)
It makes me feel bad when people talk about how horrible Starbucks is. (The quality of coffee, business practices, prevalence, popularity, etc.) From the standpoint of a fairly ignorant consumer–I don’t study its business practices nor am I a coffee connoisseur– its products taste great and it’s revitalized the interest in coffee while introducing it to a new generation, like you said. And I am glad that coffee is so available to me.
I also hate the Starbucks rage. Starbucks has a great selection and is pretty tasty. I have about three favorite flavors and have gotten to the point where I know when they’re being brewed at the one near us in Carytown. Before Starbucks became prevalent there were probably a very few coffee shops in town (and quite removed from one another).
In Key West Annalisa spotted the “Bad Ass Coffee Company” on a map and had to go there. We had quite a time actually locating it but I finally spotted it and must say it was a treat. I got a “Nutty Irishman” which was a mixture of coffee, hazelnut flavoring, and Bailey’s Irish Cream. They sold one pound bags of whole beans, but sadly their Kentucky Bourbon flavor was all out.
Coffee does help wake me up and get me ready to think, so I can see Gladwell’s point.
Philip: Please tell more about this horrible addiction in your family! Do I qualify as an addict with at least three mugs a day?
Dick, when I was home with my Danish mother I would have 15 cups a day with her. Now I have cut back to one and a half pots a day. I don’t know what Elmer and Margo do, but their kids have resolved to be pure. Three mugs day shows that, as always, you are a man of moderation.
Although they’ve now been bought out and the name has changed, some lawyers in Toledo set up a small chain of excellent coffee shops called “Sufficient Grounds!”
Sufficient Grounds, I LOVE it! What a shame that it is no more.
Mr. Weisfelder, it is not a pretty sight when Mom and Dad are suffering from insufficient caffeine. On a recent visit home, my dad accidentally brewed some decaffeinated coffee that Mom had left out on the counter. They walked around all day like zombies, very unhappy and fretful zombies. When they figured out what had happened with the decaf, Dad banished “that sh**” to the cupboard. “Why was it on the counter anyway?”
When I read about addictions to nicotine or other drugs, I have to acknowledge that I am physically addicted to coffee, and have an inkling of what addiction is like. Fortunately, coffee is good for you, as science confirms from time to time.
No matter how good the quality, either at home or at a Starbuck’s, the coffee is never as good as what you get in Europe. Now, why is that?
We tend to postpone household repairs, replacements, etc. The world is so full of a number of things, you know. But, one day, our Mr. Coffee broke, our one and only, at the time, Mr. Coffee. I got in the car and went to Walgreen’s and bought another one, within two hours time, maybe even less. Nick commented, “The is the first time anything that broke in this house has been replaced so quickly.” The power of addiction.
When you visit us, you’ll always get Arvid Nordquist coffee from Sweden. Echoing Mary Jane, why does Kenyan or Brazilian coffee taste better when it’s processed in Europe?
I have no idea about how the coffee in Europe is better, but I do think Americans have not demanded good coffee. The Financial Times had an article this weekend on why European bread is better. The family bakery in Alsace has bakers that get up in the middle of the night to bake. A slow overnight rise leaves time for the yeast to do its work develop more flavor.
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