It wasn’t until I moved to the US that I started drinking coffee regularly and became what in the Netherlands they call ‘koffieleut’, which literally translates to ‘coffee society’. Although the average European drinks more coffee per year than the average American, the cultural significance and its effects on the average European seem less to me than on the average American. After all, coffee is a cultural obsession in the United States.

Chains with thousands of branches such as Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks dominate daily life on the streets of the United States. Especially in the morning (90% of the coffee consumed in the US is morning), millions of white foam cups with bold pink and orange logos printed on them move through the streets at rush hour. in the morning and on the train. Drive-ins are a saving grace for the rushing army of construction workers in helmets and tattoos. During lunchtime, men and women in smart business suits pour into the cafeterias.

Students relax from early afternoon until late at night on comfortable sofas in campus cafeterias. Police officers clutch coffee cups as they guard road construction sites on the highway. In short, coffee drinkers in the United States can be found anywhere you go.

This mass psychotic ritual makes Americans associate Europe above all with cars that curiously don’t have cup holders (for an American this is like selling a car without tires), or with the incredibly small cups of coffee served in European restaurants, so small that my father-in-law always had to ask for two cups of coffee. It is my firmest belief that the easily agitated and obsessed nature of ‘New England’ can be attributed to the monster-sized cups of coffee they consume. Not without reason the word ‘coffee’ derives from the Arabic ‘qahwa’ which means ‘that which prevents sleep’. Arabs have cooked coffee beans in boiling water since the 9th century and drank the stimulating extract as an alternative to alcohol banned by Muslims.

These days, coffee ranks second to oil as the world’s most valuable (legally) traded good, with a total trade value of $70 billion. Interestingly, only $6 billion reaches coffee producing countries. The remaining 64,000 million dollars are generated as surplus value in the countries of consumption. Small farmers grow 70% of the world’s coffee production. They mainly grow two types of coffee beans: Arabica and Robusta. Around 20 million people in the world depend directly on coffee production for their livelihood.

Table 1: production in 2002/3

country % 70% Arabica

30% robust

Brazil 42.03% Arab/Rob

Colombian 8.88% Arabica

Vietnam 8.35% robust

Indonesian 4.89% Rob/Arabic

India 3.74% Arab/Rob

Mexico 3.54% Arabica

Guatemala 3.1% Arab/Rob

Uganda 2.53% Rob/Arab

Ethiopian 2.44% Arabica

Peru 2.24% Arabica

Table 2: consumption in 2001/2 world consumption % kg per capita (2001)

USA 30.82% Finland 11.01

Germany 15.07% Sweden 8.55

Japan 11.47% Denmark 9.71

France 8.89% Norway 9.46

Italy 8.59% Austria 7.79

Spain 4.90% Germany 6.90

Great Britain 3.63% Switzerland 6.80

Netherlands 2.69% Netherlands 6.48

Although the world’s per capita coffee consumption is declining (in the US alone it fell from 0.711 liters in 1960 to 0.237 liters today), world consumption continues to rise due to the population explosion. Considering that coffee consists of 1% (Arabica), 2% (Robusta), or 4.5-5.1% (instant coffee) caffeine, the average American consumes at least 200-300mg (the daily amount recommended maximum) of caffeine per day to the consumption of black coffee.

The place I go for a cup of coffee is Starbucks in Stamford, Connecticut. The entrance is at the corner of Broad Street and Summer Street, to the left of the main public library with its simple pediment and slender Ionic columns. The location right next to the library is in keeping with Starbuck’s marketing plan. At the cafeteria’s entrance, a life-size glass window curves to the left, offering magnificent voyeuristic views of pedestrians on the sidewalk. Stepping inside, you walk right into the living room area with bookshelves stacked against the back wall. Velvet armchairs face each other with small coffee tables in between, creating intimate sitting areas. Velvet chairs near the window are the main seats, taken advantage of by those unfortunate enough to take advantage of a wooden chair. At the back of the long rectangular room is the cafeteria and a small Starbuck gift shop. There is a dark wood table with suitable sockets for placing laptops and spreadsheets, dividing the living room area from the coffee bar.

Since I’ve been in a bad mood for weeks now, I’m hesitant to order a regular black coffee. It’s all too easy to get drunk on a favorite food or drink in the US due to the gigantic portions served. The smallest coffee cup is a ‘tall’ size (12 oz. = 0.35 l.), after which you can choose between a ‘large’ (16 oz. = 0.5 l.) and a ‘ venti’ (20 oz. = 0.6 l.) ). Half a liter of coffee seems a bit of an exaggeration, and it sounds absolutely absurd to my European mind. I finally end up choosing a ‘solo’ espresso.

Sitting in one of the booth seats against the back wall, unable to get a prime seat, I pretend to read my book while listening to the conversations around me. Three middle-aged men sit in three ash gray velvet chairs and talk loudly. Vivid dialogue unfolds, interchanged with half roars, half shrieks, laughter. They mock a colleague in his absence, then frown in concern as they discuss the teeth of one of the men’s daughters. Two African American women sit at a small table in front of the reading table in the dim light, one of them wearing a yellow headscarf with black African motifs. Near the entrance, in the seating area next to the lively conversation, a homeless man is playing solitaire. One by one, he places the crumpled, round-backed cards on top of each other, as if he were trying to match them. He gave her a couple of dollars in exchange for a coffee to feel, in the warmth of the main room, the nostalgia of a cozy room and relive the sensation of intimacy of having one’s own home.

It is a bright, sunny day in early fall, a typical New England Indian summer. Sunbeams radiate through the colorful, flickering foliage and cast a puzzle-shaped shadow on the Starbuck’s window. Autumn’s hand rotates her colorful kaleidoscopic lens. The green ash tree near the sidewalk resembles, with its polychrome colors, a kind of bronze statue: its stem is sulphurous bronze, its foliage intermittently coppery green and ferric-nitrate gold. On the other side of the pedestrian crossing, the crown of a young red oak is tinged with fiery red. These are the budding impressions of fall foliage that Connecticut is ‘world famous’ for in the US.

In the world of marketing and entrepreneurship, Starbucks is a success story. It’s one of those stories of ‘excellence’ that is taught as a case study in business school. Founded in 1971, it really began its incredible growth under the leadership of Howard Schultz in 1985, and currently has 6,294 coffee shops. But what does your success really consist of? A large cup of coffee at Starbucks is much more expensive than Dunkin’ Donuts: $2.69 compared to $3.40 for a Starbucks venti. But while Dunkin’ Donuts offers only a limited variety of flavors like mocha, hazelnut, vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon, you’ll find exotic-quality beans at Starbucks like Bella Vista FW Tres Ríos Costa Rica, Brazil Ipanema Bourbon Mellow, Colombia Nariño Supremo, Organic Shade Grown Mexico, Panama La Florentina, Arabian Mocha Java, Caffè Verona, Guatemala Antigua Elegant, New Guinea Peaberry, Zimbabwe, Aged Sumatra, Special Reserve Estate 2003 – Sumatra Lintong Lake Tawar, Italian Roast, Kenya, Ethiopia Harrar, Ethiopia Sidamo, Ethiopia Yergacheffe and French Roast. So Starbucks offers upscale coffees and high-quality coffee dinners, almost reminiscent of the fancy coffee shops I visited in Vienna.

From time to time, I smile sheepishly and think about my endless doubts when choosing between the only two types of coffee available in most Dutch shops: red brand and gold brand. Even to this day I have no idea what the actual difference is between the two, other than the color of the wrapper: red or gold. Not surprisingly, Starbucks appeals to the genre of people with laptops: consultants, students, intellectuals, the middle class, and a Starbucks coffee is a white-collar coffee, while a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is a blue-collar coffee. . At Dunkin’ Donuts you will meet Joe the plumber, Bob the barber and Mac the trucker. But what exactly is it that draws white-collar workers in the US to fall back into the purple velvet chairs?

I imagine your work days filled with repetitive actions and decisions on a playing field of precisely defined responsibilities. How many of the players on these courses spend the day going through their routines simply for the simple fact of being able to enjoy their daily 30 minute escape to the privacy of Starbucks where, for a brief moment in the day, you regain the illusion of human warmth? and exotic associations to resist the coldness of high finance?

For 15 minutes you fall back into the deep soft cushion of a velvet chair and randomly, and how important is that moment of utter randomness, you pull a book off the shelves. While, in the background, peaceful tones of country blues resound, with its recognition of the deep human suffering, a flash of folk with the primary connection with nature and tradition, or merengue that revives the passionate memories of adventure and love, You look out the window and reflect on that simple and volatile reflection of the moment, reinforced by the physical effect of a pint of watered coffee starting to take effect and the satisfaction of chewing your muffin, bagel, cake, brownie, croissant or donut.

It is, above all, that bodily ecstasy caused by a combination of caffeine, sugar and the salivating Pavlov effect. You remember the musician straining behind the counter taking your order, the fan as you pay for the coffee poet and give him a full tip in dollars, feeling a transcendental limit in your escape from reality. You stare at the announcements and poems on the bulletin board with a throbbing imprisoned from the first drinks of coffee, and without failing you think: They are right, they are so right! And what do I care? Why should I care?

But then you look at your watch and realize you really have to get back to running. ‘Well, too bad, I have to go!’, or people will start gossiping about being away from your desk for so long. And as you open the door, an autumn breeze blows across your face, the last tunes of the blues solo fading away as the Hammond organ whispers, ‘I throw my troubles out the door, I don’t need them anymore.’

Coffee in the United States is a subculture that massively floated to the surface of the consumer society. Starbucks is more than coffee, it is more than just another brand in the market, it is a political-social statement, a way of perceiving how you would like to live, in other words it is a culture. Starbucks is the alternative to Coca-Cola and much more than coffee: it’s chocolate, ice cream, frappuccino, travel mugs with exotic prints, cups and live music, CD’s, exhibition discounts and even volunteer support.