Costa Rican Coffee Culture

  As we learned from many of the class readings as well as from observation in general, coffee is a very important staple in Costa Rican culture and its development. As we learned in the reading about Costa Rica from the book Understanding Central America, Costa Rica was a colony of small coffee farmers and that identity stuck with them through independence and into the early 20th century. Based on the early roots of coffee in Costa Rican society is easy to understand that coffee would then be deeply integrated into society and its cuisine. For the week 6 blog post, I spoke to my Tica family about their coffee habits, and observed the way  they handle coffee to gain perspective on the way coffee has been integrated into daily life. Below are the questions and their responses:

When do people drink coffee in CR (morning, all day, etc.)? How is it served and drunk (are there special cups or a special method of preparing coffee, like tea is in England, or is it always served with something to eat, etc.)?
When I asked this question my tica sister quickly said everyday. Afterwards my mom dad both agreed that they drink coffee everyday, more specifically twice a day. Once at breakfast and again in the evening. I observed this before because generally when I get home after school at between 4:30 and 5:30, I either see my mom or sister eating snacks and drinking coffee, or there are galletas or cookies, bread and other accessories out on the breakfast table. I asked them what they liked to eat with the coffee and they said bread or cookies, and even made the comparison to tea time in England. My tica family makes coffee in a coffee maker exactly like the on in the US, but they always use milk when they drink. None of my four family members drinks their coffee black, only me and that is because I do not drink milk in general. The generally also sweeten their coffee with sugar or as in the case of my mom and sister, with artificial sweetener. I am not sure why that is and they only said that it was because they didn't like it without milk. I can only speculate that it is left over traces from when they were first introduced to coffee as kids.

At what age do people start drinking coffee? How is it introduced to children/young people (as an "adult" drink like wine, for instance, or something they need to develop a taste for over time, etc.)? 

In response to this question my tica mom said from a very early age around three. That is the age she said her parents gave her tastes of coffee. She said that her parents would give her little tastes of coffee at a time from their coffee cups, but they would often mix in a bit of coffee with her usual milk drinks. My mom then said she started her kids, my tico brother and sister, around the same age with the same methods. She said that she then increased their amounts of coffee if they liked it or not.

Generally coffee can be purchased in just about any food store or restaurant. It is literally everywhere in and you can purchase it as the roasted beans or with the beans roasted and grounded into a powder. My tica family buys is ground into a powder because it is easier and faster to make it into coffee. The picture above has pictures of different types of coffee packaged in Mas por Menos in Sabanilla. The beans in all the packages are roasted, but only the blue bag on the right (which I moved down) and a few bags on the bottom are whole beans. Whenever I have bought coffee, it is served black in a cup, but there is creamer or milk, and sugar that I could add to me pleasure. In one place, the coffee and milk are brought out in separate containers from the cup so you could even it mix the proportions to your liking.  Although coffee is quite widespread, I have not seen many ads for coffee. I am not sure if it just because I don't notice it as it is everywhere or there actually are not many. The few that I have seen have been from McDonald's and I think it is because they are trying to attract more costumers by appearing more culturally appealing.

Coffee culture in the United States is somewhat similar to that in Costa Rica, except for the fact of coffee's impact on Costa Rican history. Nonetheless in the US many people start their days with a cup of coffee just like the ticos. In the us more likely than not, coffee is generally drunk black, that is without milk, but many people like to add milk and other creamers to their coffee especially from big coffee chains such as Starbucks and Caribou coffee. In the US, coffee shops are huge and are spread all around the country. Throughout the day however, people keep drinking coffee to keep them going. It is seen more as a fuel for waking up in the US rather than a type of common food.

I think that it is interesting to look at the coffee culture in the US and compare it to that in Costa Rica. The main difference between the two cultures is in its usage. For Costa Ricans, coffee represents more than just a fuel to keep them awake and going , but can be seen as a symbol of their countries development, progress and overall stability. In the US however coffee is seen more as a fuel, useful only because of its caffeine and its ability to keep people awake to do work. The difference between the perceptions of coffee are evident in the fact that in Costa Rica, although it is widespread it is not widely commercialized, with few coffee shops as a majority of people drink their coffee at home. In the US however, coffee is commercialized and sold mainly in restaurants that focus on coffee or in bakeries where a person can buy coffee with a pastry or a dessert.