Transcript The Rise of Yuppie Coffees & The Reimagination of William Roseberry

The Rise of Yuppie Coffees
& The Reimagination of
Class in the U.S.
William Roseberry
Coffee..Coffeee..Coffeeeee!
►
Coffee is a widely consumed, stimulant beverage prepared
from roasted seeds – coffee beans – of the coffee plant
►
Believed to be first consumed in the 9th century; has
played an important role in many societies throughout
modern history
►
English word coffee comes from Italian ‘caffe’
introduced to Europe by the Ottoman Turks by the term
‘kahveh’ derived from Arabic ‘qahweh’
could be derived
from the Kaffa region in W. Ethiopia or a truncation of the
Arabic word ‘qahwat al-bunn’ – “wine of the bean”
►
The discovery of coffee was said by the 19th C. physician
Isidore Bourdon to have 'enlarged the realm of illusion and
given more promise to hope'
There are two main types, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is
higher quality, and fetches about twice as much robusta
Proletarian Hunger Killers
► When
coffee, as the beverage of choice in working
and middle class homes and factory canteens is
linked to the role of coffee traders’ role in the
internationalization and standardization that
restructured the coffee market, we see that coffee
trade was part of the same process that made a
capitalist world
► Coffee links consumption zones (and rise of
working and middle classes that consumed such
products) and production zones (peasants, slaves
and other rural workers who grew such
commodities in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia,
and Africa)
► Sidney
Mintz: coffee is one of many foods
(sugar, tea, chocolate) we can use to
analyze industrialization, the making of a
working class, and their role as
“proletarian hunger killers”
► Each
of the proletarian hunger killers entered
markets as expensive goods and became
proletarian hunger killers as their costs of
production, processing, and shipping dropped and
domestic consumption increased
Shaping the Taste
► Two
historical issues
► (i) An earlier period characterized by
standardization and mass-marketing
► (ii) Specific history of speciality coffees themselves
► Questions:
 What was the position and role of the giant coffee
corporations during the period of standardization?
 How has the turn towards speciality coffees been
organized?
 Who are the ‘agents’ of change and how have they
reimagined the market in order to cater to a larger
audience in the U.S.?
Coffee in the U.S.: A History
► The
process of standardization and concentration
was strongly consolidated after World War II due
in part to heavily controlled export quotas on
producing countries
► Thus a half century ago, coffee in the U.S. was
sold in cans with choices limited to light roasts,
fewer range of grinds and, a few brands such as
General Foods and Proctor & Gamble.
► Through the 1950s, coffee consumption was
generally consistent. However, from 1962 until the
early 1980s consumption significantly declined as
younger consumers associated it with the older
generation
Coffee in the U.S.: A History
► Sales
dropped due to a rise in prices
following the 1975 frost in Brazil
► Coffee distributors began to sell coffee not
on price, but on quality, value, and image
► This specialized coffee was thus fetishized
and marketed to groups according to class
and generation with a general focus on
college students and Yuppies
The 1980s Concentration Period
►Significant
price differentials remain
from the point of production through
traders, export firms, importers,
warehouses, roasters and distributors
►Giant roasters participated in this
market and proceeded dominate in mass
production of coffee for mass markets
The 1980s Concentration Period
► Coffee
distributors began to develop
different coffees to attract new niches in the
market and to appeal to different groups:
working people, college students, etc.—
dividing the market into segments based on
class and generation
► This period of market concentration saw the
export-import coffee trade organized
hierarchically according to:
 Type of beans (Colombian Arabica, Robusta),
 Origin (Guatemalan, Kona, Ethiopian),
 Processing methods, shape, size and texture of
beans
The 1980s Concentration Period
► There
was an exponential growth of 30-50% in
coffee trade devoted to specialty lines, from 14
million pounds in 1980 to 40 million in 1983
► This was due to technological and commercial
advances: Containerization revolutionImprovement of shipping and storage methods,
allowing smaller quantities of coffee to be
purchased and stored by independent distributors
► Also important is the restructuring of the
relationships between roasters, traders, and
bankers that allowed for further flexibility
New Actors, New Institutions
► Throughout
the 1980’s the speciality segment
grew, attaining the highest profit margins while
total coffee consumption declined
► Giant companies such as Nestle, General Foods,
and Proctor & Gamble ignored the growth of
speciality coffees until they captured a significant
amount of the market
► But formation of groups such as Speciality Coffee
Association of America, a group of roasters and
retailers – lobbied government and engaged in
promotional campaigns
David Harvey & Flexible
Accumulation
► Roseberry
uses David Harvey’s analysis to
show how specialty coffee is representative
of flexible accumulation.
► Neoliberal globalization creates conditions
for new niche markets
► The consumer is separated from knowledge
of the labor process, and the apparent
plethora of individual choices is actually
structured by niche marketing.
The Origin of Yuppie Coffees
► Roseberry
surveys Zabar’s, the gourmet food
emporium, in Manhattan, N.Y.C.–where there are
barrels of roasted coffee beans of different styles
- Kona Blend, Columbian, Mocha, Kenyan to name
a few (reminiscent of the “old days”)
► A nearby Deli offers more than 43 kinds of coffees,
with various other delis offering similar varieties of
‘speciality’ coffees that cater to everyone
► The expansion of speciality coffees is a distinct
break away from the past of mass production and
consumption
Speciality, Yuppie Coffees?
► So
what exactly are these “yuppie coffees”?
► Yuppie coffees, otherwise known as
specialty brands, refer to the wide variety of
coffees sold under an assortment of names
based on preparation method, blends, and
added flavors
► These new coffees gained popularity as
those involved in the trade promoted the
desire for ‘taste’ among drinkers
Two new developments:
1.
Uncertain availability of particular beans led to the
introduction of ‘styles’ and ‘flavors.’ A style, for
example “Morning Roast/Blend” mixes beans from
various origins (packaging does not identify where the
beans are from)
2.
Liquid flavors of all kinds–Hazelnut, Irish cream,
French vanilla, Egg nog, English toffee, Amaretto—the
list goes on and on—combine ‘style’ and ‘flavor’ creating
an endless variety thus inventing their own specialty
lines such as Starbuck’s Limited Reserve line and Black
Apron
►
These flavors are not FROM the beans, but added to
the coffee
Coffee: The Beverage of
Postmodernism
► The
move to have such coffees were
initiated by small regional roasters and not
corporate giants, allowing consumers to buy
directly from coffee plantation co-ops in
areas such as the Chiapas or Guatemala
► Hence, new coffees
more choices
increased diversity
less concentration,
new capitalism = the beverage of
postmodernism
►
Our freedom to choose from a variety of coffees is
linked to corporations’ success in inventing various
styles of coffees to make us think that the coffee we
are drinking originates from a particular place (when it
does not), leaving us unaware of the disconnection in
which we are participating: Indeed this is the
beverage of US capitalism!
►
The choices made available to the us are shaped by
traders and marketers using marketing strategies
based on class and generational groupings.
Ethical Coffee
► There
was a rise of roasters and distributors
interested in social and environmental
issues of coffee
► Formation of organizations such as Equal
Exchange and Coffee Kids (to name a few)
► Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, is the
oldest and largest for-profit Fair Trade
company in the US.
Enter the Giants, or Rather,
Starbucks
► Specialty
coffee became such a viable
commodity as a result of the changes so
that large corporations began producing
their own specialty coffees
► This corporate production further
demonstrates the coffee trade’s relation to
the capitalist mode of production
► Aggressive roasters, i.e., Starbucks
developed a national market for coffee
Coffee: Postmodern Beverage?
► Starbucks
launched Fair Trade Certified
coffee in 2000, which is commendable
► But when we consider the “fair trade”
prices received by small-scale coffee
growers relative to the multi-million dollar
Starbucks industry…
Tool of Post-modernism?
Conclusions
► Thus
the current class and cultural
identification of the yuppie culture’s
consumption of such goods can be seen as
a nostalgic return to a time before mass
society and consumption
► A symbolic inversion of the same economic
and political forces that enabled this
segment to be empowered
A Little Sales Pitch…
Please try to consume coffee that is:
► ORGANIC—frees workers from the dangers
of chemicals
► FAIR TRADE—to give farmers a fair price
► SHADE GROWN—eliminates deforestation
► Choose
the right bean: Your coffee selection
has the potential for powerful economic and
environmental change.