23 - Caffeinated Inspiration & Joy

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2008

When I arrived at the orphanage, a group of small children played in the courtyard, and the rest of the kids attended school nearby. My guide Mesfin left, and I briefly wondered what would happen if he didn’t come back. I took a deep breath and drew in the heady scent of incense. What a journey, I thought. Less than two years ago, we had adopted Yohannes, and subsequently found out about his sister Faven. I went inside the brick house and sat down to wait for Faven to return from school. Smoke slid soundlessly into the room through the shutters, causing me to cough. The preparation of coffee had begun, and the fumes triggered my asthma. 

The coffee ceremony is considered the most important social occasion in many villages; it is a sign of respect and friendship to be included. Coffee is prepared three times a day; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening; and each time people gather they pause to share their views, their stories, and their lives. 

I walked outside, and pulled my inhaler out of my shoulder bag. 

Two women squatted by a coal-burning stove that rested on a bed of flowering grasses. Incense smouldered nearby, allegedly keeping the evil spirits away. In a flattened frying pan with a long metal handle, green coffee beans popped and crackled, creating a smell like burning grass. One woman, the performer—wearing traditional Ethiopian dress—held the long handle and shook the pan back and forth, creating a rhythmic roast. The second woman ladled water from a large-bellied barrel into a black, clay carafe; she placed it over another stove to boil. Then she set about organizing a tray of handle-less miniature cups. Into each cup, she scooped two or three spoons full of sugar. Over the next half hour, the roasting beans turned from green, to brown, to glistening black. 

The pungent, musty smoke poured off the beans like fire on wet logs. The performer carried the sizzling pan toward me and waved her hand through the smoke; it danced around me like a carefree spirit. I held my breath, and smiled. When the beans cooled, she crushed them with a pestle-and-mortar, and finally the robust smell of coffee released onto the breeze. She spooned the fine powder into the clay carafe, and brought it to another boil. With a steady hand high above the tray, she poured coffee in a single stream until the cups over-flowed. 

She carried the tray to me, and I took a cup. “Amisegnalo (Thank you),” I said, bowing my head and cradling the cup between my palms like a holy object. 

Calgary, Alberta, 2015

In a local Starbucks, I order my coffee and join a group of women friends. My coffee—during this season of indulgence—is a grandé, soy, half-sweet pumpkin spice latté, no whip. Each of us has our poison, all with equally long-winded names. We may have missed the point of coffee, or tea, according to a coffee grower in Costa Rica. Coffee is meant to be  “enjoyed like a good glass of wine, […] straight black so you can swirl the aroma and smell and taste all of the different flavors. And like a good glass of wine, the flavor of the coffee directly relates to where it's grown and produced” (Don Juan Coffee Plantation). Starbucks coffee comes from Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, but—like a good glass of wine—that hardly registers with me as I sip the over-priced mug of prepared perfection. 

I am not solely there for the coffee. The main ingredient is women. The “performer”, in this case a barista, trained “to inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time” (starbucks.ca), takes care of our physical "need”, while we attend to the emotions and experiences. 

Coffee, discovered in Ethiopia in the 10^th C, was found to have stimulating properties in those who ate the berries. Later, the Yemeni Sufis drank it as a kind of spiritual intoxication. Its stimulant properties prompted the more orthodox and conservative religions to ban coffee starting in the 15^th C, and lasting into the 19^th.  Coffee arrived in the Americas in the early 1700’s, and continues to be grown predominantly in the developing world. The cultivation of coffee is a hot topic—extra hot. Sustainability leads the charge. Can producers continue to supply the massive amounts of coffee consumed? Are coffee farmers, and workers being paid adequately for their labour, and product? What sacrifices are they making in order to provide relatively “wealthy” countries with the beans they desire? Who looks after them when nature strikes, and they are unable to produce? 
        Some of the things we do in the developed world, create harm in another part of the world. Certainly if we took the time to learn about how our consumption affected others, we would become responsible consumers.  

“Fairtrade certification set the tone to fulfill the need for socially sustainable coffee production by providing a price safety net to coffee producing cooperatives. However, the output of Fairtrade certified production is mostly mass market commodity grade coffee which doesn't deliver the impact to really change producers' lives in a significant way” (Steven Macatonia, The Guardian, Mar. 4, 2014).

“The “shared value” in coffee is symbolic of a 21st-century colonialism where the vast bulk of profits are kept in developed countries while most of the hard work, sacrifice and risks are heaped on coffee-producing nations” (Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, The Guardian, Apr. 16, 2015). 

Over the last decade, there has been a philosophical shift in some of the larger Canadian coffee houses. For example, Starbucks has, “pioneered a new approach to ethical sourcing with an aim to both ensure a long-term supply of high quality coffee for our customers and positively impact the lives and livelihoods of coffee farmers and their communities”. And, Good Earth has incorporated something it calls “Direct Trade”; "We have partnered with a coffee roaster who works directly with farmers where our coffee is grown. This gives us the opportunity to choose farms based upon their social and environmental sustainability practices, as well as the quality of the coffee”. Many of the smaller coffee crafters display the Fair Trade logo, and/or have products that are locally sourced, but they cannot afford to create relationships across the continent, or the world, like the bigger companies. 

Coffee is the number one foodservice beverage in Canada, with 14-billion cups sold in 2010. An estimated 51% of people drink their coffee at home. Western coffee drinkers need to continue with self-education. "What we do matters. The choices that we make, the products that we buy have an impact on somebody," Alexander Meyers, a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas said. "Sometimes it's a good impact. Sometimes it's negligible or negative. But they do have impacts, so just trying to keep that in mind is important, especially in researching what is behind these consumption choices" ("Trading in Crisis: Coffee, Ecological Rift, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange”, August 24 2015).

Meeting with friends for coffee or tea is much more than a social past-time for me. My women friends inspire me to be exactly who I am. We listen empathically to one another; and the spontaneous laughter fills us up with endorphins—natural pain and stress fighters. 
Endorphins + Caffeine = Endless Possibility. 

Coffee and tea are mediums through which we connect. Clearly, meeting near to the actual coffee plantations is not possible. However, my hope is that we are consuming responsibly, and creating a positive effect to those individuals and families that are part of the seed to cup cycle: planting, harvesting, processing, drying, milling, exporting, tasting, roasting, grinding, and brewing.