In The C Market For Hunks: NYT Greases Up For Spring Break Fun
Daytona Beach, FL: These eight hunky guys have big brains and even bigger lives, but every so often they like to get together and enjoy the fun, sun and surf at Daytona Beach. And who can blame them? Every man needs to let his hair down with his bros and chillax once in a while. After some volleyball, some skinny dipping and just the right amount of brown butter suntan lotion, someone brought up the topic of coffee:
“God, I wish I had a frozen fat free double pump mocha right about now, right boys?”
“No arguments here!”
“Oooh, Jesus, that sounds good!”
“Anyhoozles, have you heard about the price of coffee futures?”
“I know! It’s like Back To The Future or something, only this time, it’s coffee futures.”
They talked for hours, long past sunset, beneath the twinkle of a thousand shimmering stars. Eight hunks, oiled up, talkin’ coffee. No curfew. No rules. No regrets.
Eugene Anderson, professor of anthropology
Everywhere it has gone, informal but real ceremonies have grown up around coffee, just as ceremonies (often much more formal and even sacred) have grown up around other caffeine sources: tea, chocolate and yerba mate. Thus, rising taste in the arts of life generally mean that people want better coffee, tea and chocolate — connoisseurship of all three has developed in parallel in the Western world over the last 30 years.
Mark Pendergrast, author of “Uncommon Grounds”
It is inevitable that there will be another bust cycle. I do not believe that the current situation is a permanent spike in coffee prices. Yes, there is growing demand from Asia, which is good for the moment, and perhaps it will lengthen this unusual boom cycle. But it will all come crashing down in time, I’m afraid.
Peter Giuliano, president, Counter Culture Coffee
Here’s my advice: stop drinking cheap coffee. It’s getting worse, as those who deal in bargain-basement coffees blend in more and more of the “bad stuff” to meet a price point. The “good stuff” will get better and better, as food lovers recognize the miracle that great coffee is, and value it as such. It’s a truism in food: eating less but better leads to maximum health, happiness and value. That’s true for coffee too — and that’s where we’re going with specialty coffee. Less but better.
Michael Gates Gill, author and Starbucks worker
Today, the customers I see as a barista in my Starbucks store are of every age and background and all are so much more sophisticated about coffee than I ever was. A young mother will order a “de-café extra hot non-fat latte.” Another woman on her way to work, a partner at Goldman Sachs, will choose a “Kona” or “Organic Java” from a dozen coffees now available, one freshly ground a cup at a time through the new Clover brewing process…it is as though Americans have discovered a new and wonderful country full of sights, smells and tastes they never knew before.
Taylor Clark, author, “Starbucked”
When I visited Néstor Osorio, the longtime chief of the International Coffee Organization, at his group’s London headquarters five years ago, Osorio told me something that perfectly summed up the harsh realities of global coffee production. “The history of coffee,” he said, “is a history of crisis.” For as long as Americans have been thirsting for their morning cup — be it the acrid diner coffee of decades past or the decadent syrupy concoctions of today — global coffee prices have been about as consistent and reliable as a 1987 Yugo.
Daniel Humphries, Coffee Scholars
The coffee industry is just beginning to tap into smarter farming practices that allow for higher quality production, better stewardship of the land, better living conditions for workers, and ultimately even higher rates of production. This is all still in its infancy. There is a huge amount of waste (of water, land and labor, for example) that can be eliminated. Though the current situation is challenging, I have high hopes for the future of coffee — from the farmers all the way through to your morning cappuccino.
Brian Cowan, historian, McGill University
While it seems like coffee has always been with us, it has been around for less than 600 years and has been commonly consumed for little more than about 300 hundred years. In world historical terms, this is a very short history indeed. But what an influence this magical bean has had in those last three centuries. The introduction of coffee was perhaps the Ottoman Empire’s greatest gift to western civilization.
Steven C. Topik, historian
Coffee continues to be an important commodity in the world economy. However, its relative position has been declining. The much quoted fact that coffee is the world’s second or third most valuable internationally trade commodity has not been true for decades. Even in Brazil, which is still by far the world’s largest producer of coffee, contributing about a third of green beans on the international market, coffee is overshadowed. It constitutes only about 2 percent of Brazil’s exports and .3 percent of gross domestic product.
