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The Story of Coffee: A Tragedy?

The most commonplace product seems to live what can easily be considered an exciting existence. Particularly underappreciated as a globally desired product, the intriguing story of coffee is widely unknown. Most coffee beans are hand picked, dried, and nurtured for months, before they are sorted, selected, and sewn into rough, humble, burlap bags, all by hand. They are heaved, from mountaintops and valleys, onto the back of workers who carry them to local markets. At these markets, they earn pennies for their labor, while the beans make their journeys around the globe.

There is a sad ending, however, to the life of a coffee bean because many brewers –particularly in the US- abuse, ignore, and overlook the nature of coffee. Its delicate disposition, cultivated through months of toil and observance, respect and care, goes unnoticed as each bean is smashed and torn and destroyed; plucked from its should-be actualization of perfection and perverted into a caffeine infused, wannabe-sink-water foulness.

There is an alternative ending, one of beauty and unhurried dedication. This real life parable of the meek coffee bean is accomplished by the few, the attentive, the devout. An exultant and perfect end, with delight and pleasure in each sip, is fulfilled by those who, to put it simply, take their time. Any coffee shop, barista, or consumer can produce the alternative ending. Learning the proper pulling, grinding, and steaming technique will save the beans from inexcusable abuse, providing their story the ending it clearly deserves, complex, exciting, and rarely told.

The tragedy that is “coffee” must end. There needs to be a happy finality to the tale, not morose or depressing, scandalizing the sweat and sorrow dedicated to each bean. Rather preferable is a conclusion that is fulfilling and gratifying, reverently delicious.
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