Relationship of Coffee

My family was not too eager to discuss this week’s blog; so much of this is my own inference. Their lack of discussion showed me that coffee is so engrained in Costa Rican culture that it was strange that I even questioned their coffee practices.

In class and within our group, we have talked about the importance of coffee in relation to Latin America, so the first question I probably could have answered on my own. Coffee is important because it represents culture, the majority of Latinas drink coffee, and it represents tradition. Just like many of the questions about food, my mother related tradition to coffee as well.

Relating coffee to tradition made sense, but at the same time was slightly ironic to me. In the coffee book reading, we learned that coffee originated in the Muslim society. Clearly, Costa Rica is not an Islamic country. Instead, it is a country tied to the Catholic Church. The fact that coffee was a non-Catholic drink at its roots was swept under the rug in order to enjoy it without guilt. Therefore, there are two parts to the coffee tradition. First, there is the involuntary tradition of ignoring and not knowing the origins of coffee. Second is the tradition of drinking coffee, which became increasingly popular as priests sang its praise as a drink of G-d.

The second part of the representation of coffee was not my mother’s spoken words, but her actions instead. I have mentioned before that many times, my tica mom will say one thing, but is at times hypocritical with her actions. For example most of the ticas I have met, with exception to my tica mom, will offer a guest coffee like someone in the U.S. would offer “a glass of water or something to drink.” It is second nature. In my tica mom’s case, though coffee does represent tradition, it also represents a much stronger bond of friendship built on years of time and trust. I think this is a unique view on coffee, but in our house it is held as sacred. I have yet to be served coffee in my house, or even hot chocolate, though my mom knows that I like both. Instead, if I am present when my mom has a “coffee friend” over, I am served a glass of juice. As silly as it sounds, if am ever served coffee or hot chocolate in my house, it will be an extremely monumental day.

Because my mom places such a strong bond on coffee, she did not connect it at all to politics in Costa Rica. It was my brother, a banker who stated that coffee has quite a large role in Costa Rican politics. He discussed coffee as being a very strong part of the economy of Costa Rica that has always been supported. We see its support of coffee and the growers as coffee cultivators historically made a higher wage and were ticos instead of foreigners. Similar to coffee and politics in the U.S., the coffee relationship offers a friendly hand to whomever you are speaking. Though in Costa Rican business, coffee is the norm, excellent quality coffee only extends its hand to the more exclusive.

Excellent quality in Costa Rica could not be more different than in the U.S. Here excellent quality is 100% Costa Rican grown, cultivated, roasted, and brewed. In the U.S. excellent coffee is a Starbucks specialty custom drink. However the meaning of specialty is defined, both are geared towards an “exclusive” crowd. Here the exclusive audience may be powerful businessmen, but in the United States, everyone wants to be exclusive. So regardless of class or affordability, many Americans will drink specialty coffee to be part of the “in crowd.” I think this idea of being in the “in crowd” is becoming more and more prevalent as American labels and restaurants push their way into Costa Rica.

In the past 10 years (according to a cab driver), the existence of McDonalds has greatly influenced the Costa Rican youth. When I ate lunch with my class at McDonalds, it was the “cool” thing to do. They were excited to eat a hamburger and Coca-Cola. It is their hang out place, and even though one boy told me that he didn’t like McDonalds, he ate in anyways just to be in the “in-crowd."

The interesting thing about McDonalds is that I have yet to see someone drinking coffee there. I have not been there in the morning, but I would assume that buying coffee to go here would be rare, given its importance in society. Additionally the hours of McDonalds indicate that people do not get coffee to go. McDonalds here opens at 7:30, something that would be absolutely unheard of in the U.S. By 7:30 most adults will have already arrived at work and students at school, thus making McDonalds irrelevant. In addition, I think that McDonalds coffee is not held in high regard. Recently Costa Rican coffee has become more pure, instead of coffee roasted with corn as filler. Costa Ricans have become more aware of this and begun to place a higher personal value with their own Costa Rican coffee. Places like Kaldi tend to be a higher-class coffee place, although ironically Kaldi is a Muslim word. (I guess this is one place where tradition of ignoring coffee’s roots was broken) At Kaldi, I have seen business men as well as moms taking their “tweenage” daughter out for a cup of coffee. Kaldi seems to be a place that may foster an actual relationship, where McDonalds is just a place to hang out, be cool, and waste time. In conclusion, the “public” coffee culture is dependent on the public place of drink. A fast food place will be more of a teenage hang out, but a coffee shop will be more business men, and University students just catching up.