Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bye Bye Mr. Stinky

I was a special education teacher. Matter of fact, I taught Special Education for four-and-a-half years. I taught some non-verbal kiddos how to read, increased the diversity in their diets, taught them games and social skills, and–what I am most proud of–I helped kids out of diapers, who were well past the time to meet that milestone… And let me tell you, that is not always an easy task. It is always a rewarding task. Find the carrot By carrot, I mean the motivation for doing something that is not preferred; for example, if you want to buy a beer, but you have no money, you might help a friend move. Moving is a total garbage activity, but he may pay you and buy you beer; if you know how to negotiate, you will get an unhealthy amount of pizza too. BAM! You had no money; now you have pizza, beer, and money, because you leveraged your time and effort. Potty training is no different. The kiddos usually don't know how to leverage their time and resources to get what t...
Post a Comment
Read more


Café Finesse

A "gentleman's drink," "hood," whatever you want to call it, is a meticulous matrimony of espresso and steamed milk, knit together to become what is commonly known as a cappuccino. The cappuccino stands as one of the most misunderstood experiences available almost nowhere but offered everywhere. I cannot count the times I have ordered a cappuccino only to receive a mound of foam with abandoned espresso lamenting its extraction on the bottom. It is the wet kitten of coffee. The cappuccino is more than just espresso and milk. It is not only espresso and foam either. The ceremonial blending of the elements is as tender and sensitive and romantic as a first kiss. The cappuccino is not a coffee drink, it is the coffee drink. It is not espresso but a perfection of it. Ordering a cappuccino "to go," as they say expecting a paper cup, is somewhat of a culinary indiscretion, but carelessly serving steamed milk, foam and espresso is a barefaced disregard fo...
1 comment
Read more

On Immunization and Freedom

Health and freedom seem to be the ultimate end of any function of the government. Without life and good health, how can we be free, seek happiness or raise a family. Thus, the ultimate and deepest implications of immunization are societal as well as scientific. Small Pocks, HPV, German Measles, all take their toll on society because they are so contagious; their significant danger is the purpose for immunization and litigating a requirement for them may be a safe and easy way to end the curse of many preventable diseases. The controversy does not center on whether they work or not. Vaccination works. The odd increase in disabilities and ailments over the last 100 years is what causes so much tumult, in the public square, at the mention of vaccines. ADD, auto-immune, and neurological disorders have been on a steady rise as the commonplace usage of vaccines have risen. Many nations who do not have common vaccines have other problems, however; they deal with measles and whooping ...
3 comments
Read more