Social Coffee Club
Coffee: a globally adored drink that is both legal and addictive. Waking up to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is means enough to get you out of bed. Growing up in a family whose home country is the second largest coffee export, I have always made caffeine my drug of choice. At 8 years old, my family took me and my sister on a week-long tour of Colombia’s coffee route. Like a quinceañera, this is another come of age ritual. La Ruta Cafetera explores Colombia’s diverse landscapes and coffee cultivation regions. On my last trip to Colombia, I visited the city of Medellin’s coffee shops. Having never been to a coffee shop in Colombia, I wondered if they followed the European model or were fast and and cheap like Dunkin' Donuts. I realized they all followed a European model but not because Colombians are attracted to paintings of Napoli on the walls and french coffee terms, but because they attract tourists. I was surprised to learn coffee shops aren’t usual meeting places for hipsters or for students to get some homework done; in Colombia, they remain meeting places for families and friends to immerse themselves in the coffee. Coffee is so engrained in the culture and is a part of like, making the experience more appealing.
This scene is also true outside of Colombia. On my trips to Europe, mainly Spain and Italy, I’ve noticed the coffee culture is centered around social interaction. This even remains true on the countryside of Spain, contrary to the suburbs of Connecticut. This subculture is not as fixated on the coffee itself, but the conversation an intimate setting with aromatic coffee conjures up. It’s fascinating to watch people open up, laugh, fight and love in small coffee shops. I get it, I go to coffee shops all the time and treat them like my own social clubs. I’ve worked at a number of them and I’ve learned the science and art behind coffee making. But working at a number of them in the U.S, I’ve also witnessed a decline in the essence of coffee shops. They have become building strictly for studying, schoolwork, or even sitting down to stream your favourite show. When I’ve worked as a barista, I conjure my best work in every cup of coffee I make, I believe that a good cup of coffee instantly makes a person’s day better. Working at them, the interaction between the barista and the customer is the most important element to making the perfect cup of coffee. Pulling the perfect espresso shot with beautiful looking crema on the top should warm anyone’s heart; yet, I give away this delicious cup of coffee to someone talking on the phone in one hand and holding their laptop in the other. Where has this interaction and this connection gone?
Coffee Shops have always been meeting places strictly to hide away and meet your friends, maybe to start a revolution or to meet your secret lover. Hidden away like speakeasies, coffee shops were the center of controversy; in 18th century England, the British monarchy gave a failed attempt at shutting down London’s coffee houses. People understood the intimacy of places serving non-alcoholic drinks, they were not meant for hostility, rather diplomatic discourse.
However, in the suburbs of Connecticut, they are being treated like places for little communication, screaming children, studying, or a stop-and-go place for your morning fix. This only aides in the emotional detachment from face-to-face communication and aides in this new era of technological bonds. How do we return to the intimate gathering places for artists, writers and revolutionaries? Amusingly, I write this all while sitting at a Starbucks.
