When watching a TV show or movie, there’s a certain level of expectation for suspension of disbelief that you have to deploy. I can believe that someone could dance carefully through moving security lasers for a museum heist, but what I can’t do is see people wave supposedly filled coffee cups around. How in the world did you weave through a horde of New Yorkers with a tray of full cups and not spill anything?? Even with the lowest stakes—me transporting a cappuccino that the barista has tested the limits of water tension on, from counter to table—has me so focused, and still, I slosh a little foam over the sides.
Obviously, it makes sense for the cups not to be filled with liquid; it’s not worth the potential mess. And if a shot requires the audience to see what’s in the cup before they drink it, movie magic is performed to make it look real.
In the early days of TV, coffee was a background item or set decoration: a Mr. Coffee-esque coffee maker was on the kitchen counter, and drip machines in cafes always had a carafe filled with something. When characters held diner mugs, sure, the prop was more present, but only still there on a set and not as a talking point. “None of the characters on ‘Friends’ interact with the Chemex beyond picking it up and pouring from it—no one comments on it, no one is even shown making coffee, and no one even acknowledges its existence,” writes Ashley Rodriguez in Salon.
As specialty coffee gained traction and exposure, it made sense that its role in media and storytelling also evolved. Black coffee is often used as a sub-trope of “drink-based characterization with an extra shot of manliness,” according to wiki-reference guide TV Tropes, and anything complicated (“upside down caramel macchiato” from NCIS character Nick Torres) denotes pretentiousness.
Sometimes, I suspect there are burgeoning coffee enthusiasts in the writing room. I’ve noticed that the trope of a coffee snob who likes kopi luwak coffee is rarely seen now. When I started watching 9-1-1: Lone Star (a firefighter/first responder procedural drama), I wasn’t surprised to see a coffee machine in the firehouse—it was the fact that the main character, Captain Owen Strand (played by Rob Lowe), commissioned a custom-made espresso machine from Italy, which reflected his sophisticated tastes. Owen was cultured and his preferences matched that. Set Decorator Regina O’Brien explains, “A cosmopolitan environment seemed right for the crew, but we also wanted someplace that seemed rich and organic. Owen brings high-end design and living to the station.” At the beginning of the season one finale, we see probationary firefighter Mateo Chavez trying to make his captain his favorite drink, a “half-caf capp” and accusing coworker Paul Strickland—who apparently likes “a robust cup”—for breaking the machine, “You probably packed the filter basket with extra fine grounds and ran it on a high temp, didn’t you?”
Between writers, directors, set decorators, set designers, prop masters, and everyone else in between, there are lots of ways for one’s specialty coffee interest to show up. According to the Property Masters Guild, props cover everything from manufacturing to sourcing to animal wrangling: “The most important role of the Property Master and their team is to represent all aspects of the art of the film while working with the shooting crew.”
Eric Rasmussen, Executive Director at Coffee House Industries, shares that his company has built custom cafes for shows and marketing activations. In TV, “it’s a fluid situation,” he says. Set design requests tend to be last-minute because the script is top priority, and then the set design happens. That being said, cafe designs are “more iconic to what’s being filmed,” so as not to step on any intellectual property. Of course, there are also the cafe sets that stay throughout the season because they’re so integral to the storyline.
The set decoration department is part of the production team and is home to many positions that are necessary for composing sets. The Blue Blues Café in Big Little Lies is wildly different from the coffee bar in Supermarket Sweep (“The coffee shop was another section that was all set dec and no gameplay or culinary, because it was supposed to be dead to gameplay as well, but of course they invented a coffee service-based game to go in it, because the set looked so good when we finished!”), which contrasts with Baby Driver’s “perfect replica of an Octane coffeehouse” as part of the brand integration deal with the actual, now-shuttered Octane in Atlanta.
Thanks to cutting-edge 3D printing technology, nearly everything is printable, especially when it comes to reproducing expensive items.
His team builds the sets where the Kardashians film their interviews. “We had to print a lot of the textures because obviously a piece of granite that is $100,000 that they have in their house—we’re not going to put it on the set,” explains Rasmussen. “So we take photos of it and print it, and it looks the same, especially on camera.”
90% of inspiration is now pulled from online sources, and an estimated 70% is sourced from Facebook marketplace vis-à-vis cafe closures (“We don’t have anything actually working”). Special props may be sourced from prop houses, but it’s entirely possible that the item itself is 3D-printed, too. Lately, concurrent to analog’s trendy return, he’s been seeing an interest in more actual props. In a decision on whether to use practical effects or digital, it always comes down to budget: “If it’s cheaper to have somebody like myself make a prop versus having it drawn into the screen, then they’re going to pick a real prop every time.”
Another avenue for coffee props to show up in is advertising or marketing. “As a photographer who has used coffee in photoshoots before, I’m always hesitant to use specialty coffee,” says Rasmussen. “If the shoot is not for a roaster, I employ instant coffee, decaf, and blends, depending on where the coffee is featured.”
In ad photography and motion, coffee is often designed to be picture-perfect, but there are nuances that can be made. According to food and beverage stylist Takako Kuniyuki, “For motion shoots that involve a lot of coffee, I prepare large batches in advance to allow for quick resets between takes—sometimes that means going through a mountain of Nespresso pods!” Commercial shoots can take hours to days, which means either lots of coffee is used or some maneuvers are done to trick the eye. She says, “When I’m working with room-temperature coffee or need to recreate steam multiple times, I use a non-nicotine vape pen to generate realistic steam.”
Cold drinks or those with a topper of foamed milk or whipped cream present a different challenge: how do you achieve that perfect foam? The set itself is finalized in terms of angles, lighting, composition, etc., before the drink is swapped out. “To help stabilize foam, I sometimes use additives like Fee Foam,” says Kuniyuki. “If the beverage needs to sit on set for a long time, I create fake foam or crema using shaving cream.”
Fake or not, I look forward to seeing sets be less basic and more intentional in their coffee setups. There are some things I can suspend disbelief on, but “full” yet active mugs of coffee and incomplete espresso machine setups are not one of those things.
Jenn Chen (@thejennchen) is an Editor At Large at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jenn Chen on Sprudge.
Photos by Adrian Mueller
Food & beverage prop stylist: Takako Kuniyuki
