ahhh glorious coffee... there is nothing quite like a good cup of coffee. growing up downtown smalltown my dad and i would walk in the mornings to the bean cellar or tim hortons, get a cup, and talk, people watch, or have a stroll 'round to do various errands. i thought it was the coolest thing. and still do. there is still no other way i would rather spend a saturday. it was quality time together. i am intimately acquainted with the local stores. and today, being the responsible citizen that i am, i take pride in being able to be a patron to local businesses.
i guess its just one of those things you can take from your childhood and build on. like tea in the afternoon, thank you nana. or family dinners where everyone bustles around the kitchen shouting news, thank you ridiculously huge extended family. its like comfort food, but better, because its something you can take anywhere. those couches, random assortment of books, the local artwork up, and the guitar specifically there to have a good jam with. its all apart of home. i may not be able to make it to the bean cellar every weekend, but where ever i am i can call up a friend and go to the nearest coffee spot and sit for a bit.
in this semesters politics class we talked about coffee and what exactly that chain of production looked like. how its possible because of globalization, and how there is an amazing discrepancy between what we as consumers see and what the workers who actually grow the beans see. granted the information was off-putting, and made me reconsider my coffee habit, but for me coffee is more than coffee. so i can make informed decisions and choose to get fair trade, or stop going to chains that obviously abuse the system (cough starbucks cough), but nothing, absolutely nothing, will let me de-value my coffee experience.
