Week 7: Coffee and Costa Rica (again)

                Coffee is an important part of Costa Rica, not just because it is an export, but also because it is a part of Costa Rica’s history. Coffee is a strong part of Costa Rica’s culture and traditions because coffee was one thing that made Costa Rica known. Coffee beans were Costa Rica’s first form of currency because the beans were so highly valued and everyone could find a way to obtain some of them, thus the beans did not alienate any economic class. Coffee was not just currency, but it was a social equalizer, it formed occasions for bonding, and it was even seen as a cure for illnesses. To this day coffee is not just a drink, or a flavor of ice cream or cake, it is a way of remembering hardship and growth.

                Costa Rica’s whole economic system, then and now, revolves around coffee (and a select few other commodities). Drinking coffee is how people bond and how people remember what their country has gone through. Although most people would not walk up to you and thank you for drinking pure, Costa Rican coffee, all of the people of Costa Rica are taught about their countries history and their foundation being built on the export of coffee. Coffee in Costa Rica represents growth and the pursuit of action because that is what coffee brought to Costa Rica. With coffee came technology, mechanics, medicine, production, exportation, investment, and so much more.

                When I asked my tica sister what coffee meant to her, she said it meant her having to sit downstairs with “old people” and join in on their conversation; it was not forced conformity, but the traditional way of bonding and learning from your elders. I found this to be very interesting because most people I talk to these days never mention tradition or anything to do with “elders” unless asked about that specifically. But when asking anything about coffee in Costa Rica, I suppose the answer would have to be something referring to tradition, elders, colonization, or export.

                In Costa Rica, coffee is pretty much connected to anything and everything, including politics. Since Costa Rica is a third world country and they rely heavily on export, it makes since that they are economically dependent on other countries to buy their coffee export products, which affects their politics because everything affects politics. Whether or not Costa Rica has a good political bond with the U.S. does effect the U.S.’s import of Costa Rican coffee, and whether or not the U.S. imports Costa Rican coffee highly affects Costa Rica’s economy and Costa Rica’s politics. Any shift in a countries economy will affect their politics because it will either cause an increase or decrease in pay, in jobs, in prices, and in products available, which cause civil unrest and political problems “within house” and between other nations.

                In Costa Rica’s early history, those who has political power were those who also had economic power and thus, those who were successful at marketing coffee. Over many decades, coffee has risen and fallen, but it still has had a huge impact on the government and politics of Costa Rica. Coffee plantations set into action unions, which enacted working laws to give a living-wage and form other legislation's that acted to aid the workers of plantations (not just coffee plantations, but banana, etc.). 

This is the inside of Kaldi -- a very nice cafe in Sabanilla, Costa Rica. This is not just a cafe that serves coffee and pastries, but it also serves main meals like carne sandwiches. The cafe does not merely focus on coffee, but rather pastries of all kinds (and it seems that coffee is purely a drink that can be added onto a meal).

This photo was taken at the mall in Alajuela, it is of me, my father, and my grandparents at the food court (drinking McDonald's coffee). Coffee is not the main focus of a McDonald's, not even in a country widely known for its coffee. But coffee is still available at all times of the day and many McDonald's in Costa Rica also have McCafe's (which do focus mostly on coffee appreciation and the coffee-time atmosphere).

                At most of the places in Costa Rica, and in the US, where I find coffee, coffee has rarely ever been what is truly the focus (even when it is a cafe that only sells coffee). Regardless of what is being sold at the cafe, the focus is usually more toward social aspects or appreciation (music, talking, etc.). Places that sell coffee usually do sell something else, even if it is not the stated "purpose" of the cafe, like the sale of music cd's or the sale of a space/chair to have a business meeting; the public places in Costa Rica, that I have visited, also sell other things beside coffee. I believe that selling coffee in addition to other things is how most public places are, in Costa Rica and in the US; it seems to be the norm for the public coffee-culture.