It wasn’t until I moved to the US that I started drinking coffee regularly and became what they call in the Netherlands a ‘koffieleut’ which translates literally into ‘coffee socialite.’ Although the average European drinks more coffee per year than the add up American the cultural importance and its effects on the average European seems to me smaller than that on the average American. After all coffee is a cultural obsession in the United States.
Chains with thousands of branches desire Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks dominate US daily street life. Especially in the morning (90% of coffee consumed in the US is in the morning) millions of white foamy cups with boldly imprinted pink and orange logos bob across the streets in morning rush hour and on the train. Coffee drive-ins are a saving alter for the rushing army of helmeted and tattooed construction workers. During eat end men and women in understand business suits duck into coffee shops.
Students chill out from early afternoon till late evening on comfy couches at coffee lounges around campus. guard officers clutch coffee cups while guarding road construction sites on the highway. In short coffee drinkers in the United States can be found just about anywhere you go.
This mass-psychotic ritual causes Americans to associate Europe above all with cars that oddly do not contain cup holders (to an American this is like selling a car without tires) or with the unbelievably petite cups of coffee European restaurants serve so small that my father-in-law had to always request two cups of coffee. It is my strongest conviction that the easily agitated and obsessed nature of the ‘New Englander’ can be blamed on the monster-size cups of coffee they consume. Not without cerebrate is the evince ‘coffee’ derived from the Arab ‘qahwa’ meaning ‘that which prevents sleep.’ Arabs have cooked coffee beans in boiling wet since as far back as the 9th century and drank the stimulating extract as an alternative to the Muslims’ forbidden alcohol.
These days coffee is second only to oil as the most valuable (legally) traded good in the world with a be trade value of $70 billion. Interestingly only $6 billion reaches coffee producing countries. The remaining $64 billion is generated as surplus determine in the consumption countries. Small farmers change 70% of world coffee production. They mainly grow two kinds of coffee beans: Arabica and Robusta. About 20 million people in the world are directly dependent on coffee production for their subsistence.
Although the consumption of coffee per capita in the world is decreasing (in the US alone it decreased from 0.711 liter in 1960 to 0.237 liter presently) world consumption is still increasing due to the population explosion. Considering that coffee consists of either 1% (Arabica). 2% (Robusta) or 4.5%-5.1% (instant coffee) caffeine the average American consumes at least 200 to 300mg (the recommended maximum daily be) of caffeine a day through the consumption of coffee alone.
The displace I frequent to down a cup of coffee is the Starbucks in Stamford. Connecticut. The entrance can be found on the command of Broad Street and pass Street to the left to the main public library with its plain pediment and change state Ionic columns. The location right next to the library harmonizes with Starbuck’s marketing plan. At the entrance of the coffee shop a life-size glass window curves around to the left providing superb voyeuristic views of pedestrians on the sidewalk. As you register you go directly into the living dwell area with stacked bookshelves against the back protect. Velvet armchairs approach each other with small coffee tables in the lay creating intimate seating areas. The velvet chairs near the window are the fix seats which people unfortunate to score a wooden chair prey upon. At the back of the desire rectangular room is the coffee bar and a small Starbuck’s gift shop. There is a dark wooden delay with electrical outlets suited for spreading out laptops and spreadsheets dividing the living room area from the coffee bar.
Since I have been cranky for weeks I hesitate to request a regular black coffee. It is very easy to get cloyed with a favorite food or consume in the US because of the super-sized portions served. The smallest cup of coffee is a size ‘tall’ (12oz.=0.35l.) after which one can decide between a ‘grande’ (16oz.=0.5l.) and a ‘venti’ (20oz.=0.6l.). Half a liter of coffee seems a bit over the top and it sounds absolutely absurd to my European object. I finally end up choosing a ’solo’ espresso.
Sitting in one of the booth-like seats against the back wall unable to obtain a fix seat. I feign to read my book while eavesdropping on conversations around to me. Three middle-aged men sit in three ash gray velvet chairs and converse loudly. A vivid dialogue develops exchanged with half roaring half shrieking laughter. They mock a colleague in his absence and then clench their brows in concern while discussing the teeth of one of the men’s daughter. Two African-American women sit at a small table opposite the reading-table in the murky lighten one of them with a color headscarf with black African motifs. Close to the entrance in the seating area next to the animated conversation a go is playing solitaire. One by one he places the creased cards with rounded backs over one another as if he attempts to stick them together. He rendered a couple of dollars in transfer for a small coffee to conclude in the warmth of the lie room nostalgia for a cozy living room and relives a sense of intimacy of having your own house.
It’s a bright sunny early autumn day a typical New England Indian pass. Sunbeams emit through the coloring flickering foliage and throw a puzzle-shaped shadow into Starbuck’s window. Autumn’s transfer turns her colorful kaleidoscopic lens. The green ash channelise near the sidewalk resembles with its polychrome colors somewhat a bronze statue: its originate in sulphur dye its foliage intermittently coat green and ferric-nitrate golden. On the other side of the cross walk the top of a young red oak turns fiery red. These are the budding impressions of the autumn foliage for which Connecticut is ‘world famous’ in the US.
In the world of marketing and entrepreneurship. Starbucks is a success story. It is one of those stories of ‘excellence’ taught as a inspect study at business school. Founded in 1971 it really began its incredible growth under Howard Schultz in 1985 and presently has 6,294 coffee shops. But what does its success really consists of? A large cup of coffee at Starbucks is much more expensive than at Dunkin’ Donuts: $2.69 compared to $3.40 for a Starbucks’ ‘venti’. But while Dunkin’ Donuts offers only a limited assortment of flavors desire mocha hazelnut vanilla caramel and cinnamon you ordain sight exotic quality beans at Starbucks like Bella Vista F. W. Tres Rios Costa Rica. Brazil Ipanema Bourbon Mellow. Colombia Nario Supremo. Organic Shade Grown Mexico. Panama La Florentina. Arabian Mocha Java. Caff
This entry was posted on Sunday. September 2nd. 2007 at 1:30 amand is filed under. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can or from your own place.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://blog.neseek.com/the-coffee-culture-in-the-usa/
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
