Time was when a person could have walked into a coffee shop and simply ordered a cup of coffee. Whether one took his/ her coffee with cream and sugar or without sugar or without cream (in my case, black: sans both cream and sugar…very black) coffee was usually coffee and people seemed content to have it that way. Variety was available in so many other areas and moments of life: at the workplace, at paying bills, raising a family, and trying to retain one’s sanity, for instance.
Three decades and several spins around the Universe later, coffee suavely evolved from being a basic daily staple into the status of a gourmet art form. Ice and hot lattes, mochas, cappuccinos (not to mention the thousand of variations on these) gradually yet rapidly replaced the mundane java brews of mornings and coffee breaks long ago and far away. Indeed, not only has a cup of coffee changed but now the very cup holding the coffee has changed too.
The once upon a time “Happy to Serve” you blue-themed Greek cups of the 1970s, that became the environmentally friendly Starbucks’ cups of the 1990s, have now entered into a thematic of artistic expression that could best be described as randomness bordering on commercialism and nonsense.
One day your cup of joe carries the Capital One logo. Sometimes they are purple and white, emblazoned with pharmaceutical names. Recently there has been a wave of green “Nurse Jackie” cups, advertising the Showtime series. Or recently, iced coffee cups read “Raymond James Stadium” (as in the football stadium in Tampa, Fla.) and “Bon Marche.” NY Times
Variety is indeed the spice of life and I’m not one to argue with the best laid creative plans of mice and men and coffee entrepreneurs. While we sip at our cocoa bean restoratives at the breakfast table, while in transit, or while hiding out during breaks, it’s good to indulge ourselves not only idly but artistically. All of us are pictures, more or less, at Life’s exhibition show, portraying our respective mystique to the world around us. What better time to exhibit ourselves than during one of the day’s most enriching experiences: sipping at our brews while the rest of the world waits at our leisure…and what’s more, being noticed.
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July 15th, 2009 - 2:21 pm
Ah yes, I remember those blue Greek-looking cups of the ’70s. Are they not around anymore?
One of the huge delights on my recent trip back to the Eggcream, was to go to this corner coffee shop/deli (now I forget what they’re called, but it’s one of those fabulous stereotypical NY places that are always bustling, service is faster than the speed of light, and everyone’s yelling). Anyway, I had pancakes and coffee and the coffee was, to my delight, PLAIN OL’ COFFEE, except it was delicious. It came in a ceramic cup.
You absolutely cannot get coffee in a ceramic cup in Austin (that I know of) that is even drinkable.
Thanks for the wonderful piece, as always.
July 15th, 2009 - 2:50 pm
Suzann, I’m one of those types than could boldly stroll into an ice cream parlor serving 10,000 flavors of ice cream and shock the staff by ordering a dish of chocolate ice cream…not chocolate marshmallow or chocolate pecan or chocolate with polka dots, and so on, just chocolate ice cream. I often do this in defiance of their overwhelming variety.
Now we have coffee cups blazoned with even more variety: oftentimes tacky and quite silly looking. Truly, variety has become such that it’s often mundane and while abundantly varied it’s becoming invariably redundant…hence, boring.
Thanks for the feedback, Suzann. You have to remember the address of that coffee shop and let me know where it is…I’m underwhelmed by our variety-crazy pretentiousness.