Tuesday, January 20, 2004


don't know whether to weep or laugh with joy

"only vaguely aware that her job title is 'barista'. . ."

of course i'm glad that people are beginning to understand that many many teens/students enjoy coffee. that the young and old are returning to coffee.

this fact-on-the-ground is in direct contradiction to what many long-time coffee pros believe. (and i offer my deepest apologies here to former scaa prez, steve colten!)

coffee isn't losing market share for much longer; it's turning around with speed. but the process could happen much faster; the specialty coffee industry is not necessarily successfully reaching its audience yet. however, it is improving, which is a fantastic sign.

naturally we at bccy are determined to help in this regard by increasing the appreciation of fine coffees as much as we can. some in the coffee industry feel these young people drinking vanilla lattes aren't real coffee drinkers.

but let's face it, we all have to start somewhere. once they are in the coffeehouse, students can over time be educated and exposed to finer coffees.

young people aren't stupid and there's no need to talk down to them; in fact, young people rock! (and i'm not just talking about my new po-punk band of the moment, pretty girls make graves.)

offer them choices and information without patronizing them -- that's all we need to do. over time (and a relatively short period, too, i think!) they will discover for themselves the fascination of individual origins and estates, of italian-style espresso. . .

in this regard, today's article makes me happy. but in the other regard, the "vaguely aware her job title is barista" sense, i'm bummed out.

i applaud the cafe muse for creating a welcoming environment that brings people to coffee. but i also encourage them to improve staff training.

"barista" should become part of a respectable career path in the coffee industry, not a "soda jerk" dead-end type job. . .and the baristas' guild agrees with me!

i'm personally committed to working with the specialty coffee industry through the consumer membership program to help coffee lovers develop their knowledge and love of the world's most social beverage!

the great thing is that it's not a humorless mission-from-god -- but a non-stop, terrific pleasure. please come to our party, to paraphrase another new fave band of mine, special pillow.

my final beef with the article is its dread tone -- is coffee horrible for students? when will this infantilizing condescension stop?

have the lives of generations of europeans been destroyed by those café au laits or latte macchiattos on school mornings?

good heavens, is coffee the new rock-n-roll that will corrupt the youth of america? it is as deadly as the fearsome hip hop? as terrifying as the string bikini?

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