A Coffee a day, Keeps a Babson Student awake

Do you still remember who was your best companion or supporter during your morning class or last minute projects at 2 am? Yup, it was your be-loved coffee. Coffee has become human’s best supporter, especially after Starbucks emerged in the market place. Although it might seem strange for a person who never drinks coffee to talk about it, it would be an interesting perspective to see how coffee drinkers think different from what I observe. Today, I would like to talk about how coffee has transformed its social role from a “coffee break” to a “coffee wakes you up for work” with the influence of how the media portray coffee.

The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking and the knowledge of coffee’s energizing effect appear in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries around Mokha in Yemen. It was here in Arabia that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed, in a similar way to how it is now prepared. In 1952, aggressively promoted by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, the "coffee break" was first promoted. As coffee was exported to other European countries, it became a beverage for social interaction or personal pleasure.

However, when coffee was spread into North America, its social role has gradually been changing. Instead of something that people enjoy, it has become a drug that keeps students and office workers awake during late nights and early morning. Imagine if Dunkin Donuts and trim’s coffee machine no longer sell or produce any coffee beverage, the population of “sleeping zombies” would highly increase. So why did the social role of coffee transformed after it is introduced into America? One of the reasons could be because how coffee is advertised in the States. Let’s take a look of the Starbucks’ commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbi9Se7VTxs&feature=related

As we can see, Starbucks is advertising coffee as an energizing drink that you must have at your late night work or early morning, or else, EVERYTHING will go wrong because you didn’t have enough sleep. Slowly, as this image is instilled into people’s mind, coffee’s social role has transformed.

 

Coffee used to be a medium that brought people together, and have quality time with each other in a café, or a good end of meal beverage with dessert. It was like an art. However, with the influence of the media and advertisings, coffee has become a medium that keeps people awake. May be this is the reason why people are starting to reform and reshape the presentation of coffee by showing an artsy side of coffee in cafés by creating all the elegant shapes with the cream on top.