Josh Doyle

North America runs off it. It’s the first thing we reach for every morning in the kitchen, and without it your day might just get off on the wrong foot altogether. We meet in places that serve it to talk about everything from the weather to the Prime Minister, and it warmed our moms and dads in the arena every morning at hockey practice. For all it’s done and the many moments it’s come into our life, coffee deserves some thanks. What better way to do that than to talk about it?

Most people realize that coffee is a drink made from what we often call a “bean,” but actually it’s a seed for the coffee cherry. It was discovered hundreds of years ago, and its impact on societies since then has been drastic. The first credible source of coffee drinking is in the Sufi monasteries in Yemen, in the mid fifteenth century. Its spread is owed in part to acts that at the time were considered criminal. Sufi Baba Budan is rumoured to have smuggled coffee beans out of the Middle East and into India, making him by all legal definitions one of the original drug smugglers. From there coffee spread through Europe, and eventually found its way to America. Along the way it was banned, coveted, imported legally and illegally depending on the time frame, until finally arriving at its current status of fully legal, and excessively consumed.

Coffee shops hit a high point in importance during 18^th Century Britain, and while they may be more popular now than ever, that was their breakthrough era. They emerged as a place for open discussion of politics and societal issues, the likes of which was until then unseen. Social interest led to the coffee shop as a cultural hotbed where many a newsworthy idea was discussed openly and at length. They were by all accounts the place to be if you had an interest in discussing public life, and for this reason they also became controversial places, disquieting the government with their potential to spread ideas. Now they host less pivotal activities, like studying for history finals, writing your latest Hollywood worthy script, and the increasingly popular “coffee date.”

Hey… wanna get a coffee?

Coffee shops and cafés have become the ideal place for dating, attracting people who barely know one another to sit down together in varying degrees of awkwardness. They’ve also become a favourite location for people to study and aspiring writers to get down a few pages. Perhaps it’s the love of coffee that makes these places so ideal for such an interaction, or maybe it’s just what’s popular. But then there’s also the possibility that cafés offer just what’s required for these meetings. Until this year, Peter Seaby was a student at the U of G. In his time as an undergrad, and while studying for his masters, he found himself on more than one coffee date, exploring the cafés of campus, and those around town as well. After sifting through the usual discussion of why coffee shops are nice places to talk and how everyone likes coffee, he let on that the most attractive thing about cafés is their environment. Above all, if a café is to be the sight for a successful date and a potential second, they have to have the right vibe.

“Especially if they offer good music and a good atmosphere, lot’s of good artwork on the walls. If we have a similar interest in art or music we can always talk about that. It keeps the conversation lively and gives something to comment on,” said Seaby.

In the world of dating, environment is what separates the Tim Horton’s from the more cultured cafés. Not to say Tim Horton’s isn’t a great place for coffee; on the contrary they are one of the most successful providers in the country. But if you meet one date for coffee at Timmy’s and another at the Red Brick, you’re saying two different things. Add to that how no one wants to sit down and write a political science paper where elementary school kids purchase timbits, and you begin to see why coffee shops are crowd sensitive. One offers a very “fast food” coffee environment, turning out pot after pot to drive through customers on their way to work, while the other invites you to come spend some time in comfort. Seaby claims that café’s like this have the ability to give people a better understanding of one another. They do things to help stimulate conversation, making them something of a breeding ground for small talk. As trivial as small talk may be, it’s these conversations that will likely decide whether a second date is in order. Shelley Krieger owns and operates the Red Brick Café, one of Guelph’s better-known spots for coffee. Krieger realizes the importance in providing an atmosphere that encourages conversation, ensuring the Red Brick is designed keep you talking, while ensuring your words stay where they should.

“We have a lot of private nooks to talk in, and the acoustics were set up so you could have a private conversation without someone at the next table being able to overhear everything,” said Krieger.

Coffee also makes an ideal first date choice for more obvious reasons, like the close proximity of most shops, and the fact that coffee can be a long or short drink, depending on your date.

“You can drink your coffee as fast as you want,” said Seaby. “If you don’t like the date you can have an excuse to leave.” Surely he isn’t alone in this opinion.

Nestled in among the coffee daters and the debaters of foreign policy are always the solo acts, working away on laptops or reading a book while they enjoy a cup. International Development graduate Sonia Preisler spends a good deal of her time in cafés doing just that, committing anywhere from three to eight hours a week.

“I enjoy working in a cafe because the atmosphere is casual, and relaxed. People are musing, talking, catching up, breaking-up (that gets awkward). Its a really cool environment to be part of,” said Preisler.

The more she said on the matter, the more it began to look like the coffee shop writer comes for the same reason as the coffee shop dater. It also seemed from her reply that coffee shops are not only a place for beginnings, but endings as well; yet another testament to coffee as crucial to every part of our lives.

“There is a great deal of openness when people are at cafés, socializing is a huge part of it. Cafés tend to get loud and busy, sometimes chaotic. It’s lovely,” said Preisler.

Apparently even the writers enjoy the hustle and bustle of coffee shops, which is something of a contradiction when you consider that the solo visitor won’t do much to expand this environment. This is something Red Brick owner Kreiger has taken notice of. While she invites writers and studiers of all motivations to enjoy the café, she also sees the need to keep things lively so that the café doesn’t start to “feel like a library.” On top of that, she sadly reported that some studiers don’t realize the etiquette to taking up space in a café.

“There are significant minorities of solo laptop users who seem to have no idea how to be in a shared café space. They will take over a couple tables, nurse one pot of tea for several hours, bring in their own food, unplug cafe lamps and even put dirty shoes on chairs where others will sit,” said Krieger.

What she can’t understand is why people who claim to love and support the café environment would do things that obviously jeopardize their business. Cafés are not your living room, that’s why we go to them in the first place. Laptops are welcome at most any café and so is spending extended periods of time, but the important thing is to remember a certain level of respect, for your fellow café patron and the shop owners as well. As a side note, maybe keep the PDA (public display of affection) at a minimum as well.

To drink, or not to drink?

If you consider the options for where people collect themselves, we seem to revolve around substances that do little to benefit our health. Rarely do we head to the nearest vegan bar to down a couple shots of wheatgrass, opting usually for alcohol or in many cases it’s social sister, the caffeine infused coffee. However, coffee is actually tricky to pin down as either good or bad. Despite the common conception of coffee as a negative for your health, it is in many ways beneficial. Its caffeine content has led it to be accused of causing a wealth of heart problems, and the effects of regular consumption can be sleep deprivation, irregular heartbeat, stomach upset and physical dependence, which occurs when you drink coffee so regularly that without it you experience withdrawal. While none of these seem particularly life threatening, having one or more of them is not going to have a positive effect on your wellbeing. Terry Graham, professor of Human Health and Nutritional Science here at the U of G, touched on some of the health issues surrounding the popular drink, and the ingredient therein that gets all the attention from health professionals.

“Either as coffee or pure caffeine, it causes a resistance to the actions of insulin. That is, your body will either produce more insulin than normal to process any extra blood sugar or, if it cannot, you will experience a greater rise in blood sugar,” said Graham.

This of course can’t be good; few substances that interrupt a natural, beneficial function in your body are. But coffee is truly a double edge sword. Regular coffee drinking is said to be a great way of warding off diseases like Parkinson’s, and an impressive list of others.

“Chronic consumption of coffee has been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of type two diabetes and very likely some cancers.  It may have a positive impact on cardiovascular disease and has been linked to decreased risk for a variety of dementia, and Alzheimer conditions,” added Graham, furthering the confusion health conscious individuals must deal with when deciding whether to drink, or not drink coffee. In the end most people would likely agree that a cup here and there wouldn’t harm the average person. It’s also important to note that the average cup of coffee is only 2% caffeine, which seems like a relatively mild dose. Still for those with heart problems and anxiety, it may be best to consider the effects before pledging allegiance to the coffee culture.

The ethics of coffee

At first glance, drinking coffee seems innocent enough. Certainly it has none of the immediate negative connotations that consuming copious amounts of whiskey or other alcoholic drinks do, with their reputation for stirring fights and promiscuous behaviour. But coffee does have a dark side, and I don’t just mean the roast. The difference is its less attractive face lies thousands of miles away, far removed from daily life and the individual cup you drink every morning. It lies in the compensation to those on the production side, and it has been recognized recently by popular culture. You can see the product of this recognition in the “fair trade” movement within the coffee industry. There has been a great deal of hype surrounding the fair trade movement over recent years, but it’s questionable whether most people actually understand what that means. Basically, fair-trading promotes a higher payment from corporations and importers to producers in foreign countries. Any product can fall under the fair trade category, but coffee has gained a lot of publicity as part of this movement because the coffee production industry has suffered so much from poor compensation.

“In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the base price for coffee fell so low that some producers couldn’t even cover their costs of production. Coffee prices have recovered somewhat since, but the industry is still quite volatile,” said Stuart McCook, Professor of History at the Uof G. After completing a PhD at Princeton University, McCook concentrates a great deal of his time studying the environmental history of tropical commodities, coffee being a main focus. He is delivering a talk this coming Tuesday in Mackinnon on this very topic as part of the College of Arts Astra lecture series.

“In a nutshell, Fair Trade has improved the lives of the coffee farmers involved in it, but alone it has not been able to solve the problem,” said McCook. “One of the big trends of the past six or seven years has been the entry of large corporations into the marketing of fair trade coffee. While they do use officially certified fair trade coffee, they tend to treat fair trade just as a niche market. As companies, few of them are interested in making ALL of their coffee production fair trade.”

The issue here is a conflict of interest between profits, and a legitimate concern for the coffee industry’s wellbeing. If a café or corporation involves themselves in fair trade coffee, yet still deals also in coffee that is not fair trade, their interest is likely in the profits that come from this now popular market. True fair trade coffee consumers will know which corporations and shops serve only fair trade. Lana Ramadan sees these types of customers every day while she’s working at the Bullring, an on campus coffee shop that serves exclusively fair trade coffee.

“They like the idea that we’re so conscious about helping the coffee industry,” said Ramadan of the customers that return to the Bullring, many out of a sense of responsibility.

As long as people are aware and interested in helping those they can’t see, the fair trade movement will continue to help make the coffee industry a better one for all parties involved. It seems drinking coffee has become more complicated than it once was, but with the organic, free range and humane food production movement taking over grocery stores, few things we eat have been left simple. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have both; quality, ethical working conditions that allow for everyone to benefit, and the same products that we’ve always loved? Well actually we can, it just takes a bit more work.

As a substance that brings us together through sitting and talking, separates us by forcing a decision between ethical and run-of-the-mill brew, and possibly cures cancer, coffee has become a canvas onto which we can paint many of the issues that define our era. What’s more is it’s nothing new, and has been a pivotal element of society for hundreds of years. Since it’s discovery in the 15^th century, coffee has been there with us every step of the way, served to people making the worlds most important decisions, and sipped on by those complaining about relatives. You’ve probably heard the saying ‘if you can’t beat em’, join em’. If coffee has proven anything it’s that no drink will surpass it, so you might as well go enjoy one of the many café’s this city has to offer. You can start right now, and take this paper with you.

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