Monday, July 14, 2003


regional coffee cultures part vi

i think these people need to be invited to the scaa conference in atlanta in 2004. they should become scaa consumer members!

hartwell, georgia is a small town of about 4,000 people, a town where the guys love their coffee.

some may object that these are not the kind of upscale people likely to be interested in joining a food or beverage group, nor are they likely to own an expensive espresso machine or alessi brewer.

but dear readers, these guys and their activities are totally coffee -- coffee is the foundation of their social scene. they are fully in tune with the meaning of this most sociable and intellectual beverage.

in fact, their coffee appears to be central to the life of the entire little town -- when they get together at a different place or time, it's serious news! they love coffee, but they are not yet mindful of what their coffee means to them.

they have subsumed coffee silently into their hearts. . .all they need is better quality coffee, specialty coffee. . .and all they need to know is that it exists. . .

i praise the coffee club of hartwell, georgia. they are my comrades-in-cup! i hope they someday become scaa consumer members.

half a world a way, we see more coffee in-roads in a major producing country, vietnam. two visionaries are attempting to move both upscale and working people to real coffee, away from tea or instant. both of these men seem committed to coffee culture, and to helping it flower.

and in an english village, the closing of a local coffee shop that roasted its own beans meant so much to the town, that a former patron was sparked to create a home-made documentary.

isn't this amazing? yet people still wonder about us coffee lovers! coffee in and of itself has a magic that inspires this passion, in all cultures around the world, and has done so for centuries.

remarkable, and yet almost completely unremarked upon. that marketing miracle, coca-cola, does not inspire such depth of feeling.

there are people who love coke and won't drink anything else, but is there a culture of coke as there is a culture of coffee? of course not!

even when schrafft's was in its heyday, and the girls in bobby socks went to giggle at the fountain counter, to practice flirting with the soda jerk, was there a soda culture?

no way. . . soft drink life is a marketing creation, not a spontaneous affection around the globe linking sufi scholars, voltaire, william harvey, and a group of men who live in an average rural town near a regional dam . . .

in an amusing note, i must remark that several indian coffees from karnataka (my rant here) have won the illy caffé cupping prize. . .

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