Liqueurs are historical descendants of herbal medicines. They were made in Italy as early as the 13th century, often prepared by monks (for example, Chartreuse). Today they are produced the world over, commonly served neat, over ice, with coffee, in cocktails, and used in cooking.
Etymology
The French word liqueur is derived from the Latin liquifacere, which means "to dissolve".
In some parts of the United States and Canada, liqueurs may be referred to as cordials, or schnapps. This can cause confusion as in the United Kingdom a cordial would refer to a non-alcoholic concentrated fruit syrup, typically diluted to taste and consumed as a non-carbonated soft drink. Schnapps, on the other hand, can refer to any distilled beverage in Germany and aquavit in Scandinavian countries.
Legal definitions
In the United States and Canada, where spirits are often called "liquor" (/ˈlɪkər/),
there is often confusion discerning between liqueurs and liquors, due
to the many different types of flavored spirits that are available today
(e.g., flavored vodka). Liqueurs generally contain a lower alcohol content (15–30% ABV) than spirits and it has sweetener mixed, while some can have an ABV as high as 55%.
Canada
Under the Food and Drug Regulations (C.R.C., c. 870), liqueurs are produced from mixing alcohol with plant materials. These materials include juices or extracts from fruits, flowers, leaves or other plant materials.
The extracts are obtained by soaking, filtering or softening the plant
substances. A sweetening agent should be added in an amount that is at
least 2.5 percent of the finished liqueur. The alcohol percentage shall
be at least 23%. It may also contain natural or artificial flavoring and color.
European Union
The European Union directive on spirit drinks provides guidelines applicable to all liqueurs. As such, a liqueur must
be flavored with natural, or nature-identical, flavorings, and
be labeled with the alcohol content and a list of any food colorings.
United States
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
regulates liqueurs similarly to Canada, requiring that alcohol be mixed
with plant products and sweeteners be added to at least 2.5% by weight.
Preparation
Some liqueurs are prepared by infusing certain woods, fruits, or flowers in either water or alcohol and adding sugar or other items. Others are distilled from aromatic or flavoring agents.
Anise and Rakı
liqueurs have the property of turning from transparent to cloudy when
added to water: the oil of anise remains in solution in the presence of a
high concentration of alcohol, but coalesces when the alcohol
concentration is reduced; this is known as the ouzo effect.
Liqueurs are sometimes mixed into cocktails to provide flavor.
Layered drinks
Layered drinks
are made by floating different-colored liqueurs in separate layers.
Each liqueur is poured slowly into a glass over the back of a spoon or
down a glass rod, so that the liquids of different densities remain
unmixed, creating a striped effect.
The Café de Flore
in Paris is one of the oldest coffeehouses in the city. It is
celebrated for its famous clientele, which included high-profile writers
and philosophers
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, e.g. espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee, iced tea,
and other non-caffeinated beverages. In continental Europe, cafés serve
alcoholic drinks. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light
snacks, sandwiches, muffins, fruit, or pastries.
Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large
multinational corporations. Some coffeehouse chains operate on a franchise business model, with numerous branches across various countries around the world.
While café may refer to a coffeehouse, the term "café" generally refers to a diner, British café (colloquially called a "caff"), "greasy spoon" (a small and inexpensive restaurant), transport café, teahouse or tea room, or other casual eating and drinking place. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. Many coffeehouses in the Middle East and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world offer shisha (actually called nargile in Levantine Arabic, Greek and Turkish), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. An espresso bar is a type of coffeehouse that specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks.
From a cultural standpoint, coffeehouses largely serve as centers
of social interaction: a coffeehouse provides patrons with a place to
congregate, talk, read, write, entertain one another, or pass the time,
whether individually or in small groups. Since the popularization of Wi-Fi, coffeehouses with this capability have also become places for patrons to access the Internet on their laptops and tablet computers. A coffeehouse can serve as an informal club for its regular members. As early as the 1950s Beatnik era and the 1960s folk music scene, coffeehouses have hosted singer-songwriter performances, typically in the evening.
Etymology
The word coffee in various European languages.
The most common English spelling café, is the French, Portuguese, and Spanish spelling, and was adopted by English-speaking countries in the late 19th century. The Italian spelling, caffè, is also sometimes used in English. In Southern England, especially around London in the 1950s, the French pronunciation was often facetiously altered to /kæf/ and spelt caff.
The English words coffee and café derive from the Italian word for coffee, caffè—first attested as caveé in Venice in 1570—and in turn derived from Arabic qahwa (قهوة). The Arabic term qahwa originally referred to a type of wine, but after the wine ban by Islam, the name was transferred to coffee because of the similar rousing effect it induced.
European knowledge of coffee (the plant, its seeds, and the drink made
from the seeds) came through European contact with Turkey, likely via
Venetian-Ottoman trade relations.
The English word café to describe a restaurant that
usually serves coffee and snacks rather than the word coffee that
describes the drink, is derived from the French café. The first café in France is believed to have opened in 1660. The first café in Europe is believed to have been opened in Belgrade, Serbia in 1522 as a Kafana (Serbian coffee house).
The translingual
word root /kafe/ appears in many European languages with various
naturalized spellings, including Portuguese, Spanish, and French (café); German (Kaffee); Polish (kawa); Serbian (кафа / kafa); Ukrainian (кава, 'kava'); and others.
Storyteller (meddah) at a coffeehouse in the Ottoman Empire. The first coffeehouses appeared in the Islamic world in the 15th century.
The first coffeehouses in the Islamic world, qahveh khaneh (Persian for coffee house), appeared in Damascus. These Ottoman coffeehouses also appeared in Mecca, in the Arabian Peninsula in the 15th century, then spread to the Ottoman Empire's capital of Istanbul
in the 16th century. Coffeehouses became popular meeting places where
people gathered to drink coffee, have conversations, play board games
such as chess and backgammon,
listen to stories and music, and discuss news and politics. They became
known as "schools of wisdom" for the type of clientele they attracted,
and their free and frank discourse.
Coffeehouses in Mecca became a concern of imams who viewed them as places for political gatherings and drinking, leading to bans between 1512 and 1524.
However, these bans could not be maintained, due to coffee becoming
ingrained in daily ritual and culture across the Islamic world. The Ottoman chronicler İbrahim Peçevi reports in his writings (1642–49) about the opening of the first coffeehouse in Istanbul:
Until the year 962 [1555], in the High, God-Guarded city of Constantinople, as well as in Ottoman lands generally, coffee and coffeehouses did not exist. About that year, a fellow called Hakam from Aleppo
and a wag called Shams from Damascus came to the city; they each opened
a large shop in the district called Tahtakale, and began to purvey
coffee.
Various legends involving the introduction of coffee to Istanbul at a
"Kiva Han" in the late 15th century circulate in culinary tradition,
but with no documentation.
The 17th century French traveler and writer Jean Chardin gave a lively description of the Persian coffeehouse scene:
People engage in conversation, for
it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in
politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being
fearful, since the government does not heed what the people say.
Innocent games ... resembling checkers,
hopscotch, and chess, are played. In addition, mollas, dervishes, and
poets take turns telling stories in verse or in prose. The narrations by
the mollas and the dervishes are moral lessons, like our sermons, but
it is not considered scandalous not to pay attention to them. No one is
forced to give up his game or his conversation because of it. A molla
will stand up in the middle, or at one end of the qahveh-khaneh, and
begin to preach in a loud voice, or a dervish enters all of a sudden,
and chastises the assembled on the vanity of the world and its material
goods. It often happens that two or three people talk at the same time,
one on one side, the other on the opposite, and sometimes one will be a
preacher and the other a storyteller.
In the 17th century, coffee appeared for the first time in Europe outside the Ottoman Empire,
and coffeehouses were established, soon becoming increasingly popular.
The first coffeehouses is said to have appeared in 1632 in Livorno by a Jewish merchant, or later in 1640, in Venice. In the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, coffeehouses were very often meeting points for writers and artists.
England
The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford in 1650-1651 by "Jacob the Jew". A second competing coffee house was opened across the street in 1654, by "Cirques Jobson, the Jew" (Queen's Lane Coffee House).
In London, the earliest coffeehouse was established by Pasqua Rosée in 1652.
Anthony Wood observed of the coffee houses of Oxford in his Life and Times
(1674) "The decay of study, and consequently of learning, are coffee
houses, to which most scholars retire and spend much of the day in
hearing and speaking of news". The proprietor was Pasqua Rosée, the servant of a trader in goods from the Ottoman Empire named Daniel Edwards, who imported the coffee and assisted Rosée in setting up the establishment there.
From 1670 to 1685, the number of London coffeehouses began to
increase, and they also began to gain political importance due to their
popularity as places of debate. English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries were significant meeting places, particularly in London. By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in England.
Coffeehouses were also known as "penny universities" because of the
crowd that they attracted. Scholars and students alike were regulars,
and anyone with a penny could enter and sit in on a lecture or have
access to books or print news. Coffeehouses boosted the popularity of
print news culture and helped the growth of various financial markets
including insurance, stocks, and auctions.
Though Charles II
later tried to suppress the London coffeehouses as "places where the
disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of
His Majesty and his Ministers", the public flocked to them. For several
decades following the Restoration, the Wits gathered around John Dryden at Will's Coffee House, in Russell Street, Covent Garden.
The coffeehouses were great social levelers, open to all men and
indifferent to social status, and as a result associated with equality
and republicanism. The rich intellectual atmosphere of early London
coffeehouses were available to anyone who could pay the sometimes one
penny entry fee, giving them the name of 'Penny Universities'.
More generally, coffeehouses became meeting places where business could be carried on, news exchanged and the London Gazette (government announcements) read. Lloyd's of London had its origins in a coffeehouse
run by Edward Lloyd, where underwriters of ship insurance met to do
business. By 1739, there were 551 coffeehouses in London; each attracted
a particular clientele divided by occupation or attitude, such as Tories and Whigs, wits and stockjobbers, merchants and lawyers, booksellers and authors, men of fashion or the "cits" of the old city center. According to one French visitor, Antoine François Prévost,
coffeehouses, "where you have the right to read all the papers for and
against the government", were the "seats of English liberty".
In London, coffeehouses preceded the club of the mid-18th century.
In Victorian England, the temperance movement
set up coffeehouses (also known as coffee taverns) for the working
classes, as a place of relaxation free of alcohol, an alternative to the
public house (pub).
France
Pasqua Rosée, an Armenian
by the name Harutiun Vartian, also established the first coffeehouse in
Paris in 1672 and held a citywide coffee monopoly until Procopio Cutò, his apprentice, opened the Café Procope in 1686. This coffeehouse still exists today (2022) and was a popular meeting place of the French Enlightenment; Voltaire, Rousseau, and Denis Diderot frequented it, and it is arguably the birthplace of the Encyclopédie, the first modern encyclopedia.
The traditional tale of the origins of the Viennese café begins with the mysterious sacks of green beans left behind when the Turks were defeated in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. All the sacks of coffee were granted to the victorious Polish kingJan III Sobieski, who in turn gave them to one of his officers, Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki,
a Ukrainian cossack and Polish diplomat of Ruthenian descent.
Kulczycki, according to the tale, then began the first coffeehouse in Vienna
with the hoard, also being the first to serve coffee with milk. There
is a statue of Kulczycki on a street also named after him.
However, it is now widely accepted that the first Viennese
coffeehouse was actually opened by an Armenian merchant named Johannes
Diodato (Asdvadzadur). Johannes Diodato (also known as Johannes Theodat) opened a registered coffeehouse in Vienna in 1685. Fifteen years later, four other Armenians owned coffeehouses. The culture of drinking coffee was itself widespread in the country in the second half of the 18th century.
Over time, a special coffee house culture developed in Habsburg
Vienna. On the one hand, writers, artists, musicians, intellectuals,
bon vivants and their financiers met in the coffee house, and on the
other hand, new coffee varieties were always served. In the coffee
house, people played cards or chess, worked, read, thought, composed,
discussed, argued, observed and just chatted. A lot of information was
also obtained in the coffee house, because local and foreign newspapers
were freely available to all guests. This form of coffee house culture
spread throughout the Habsburg Empire in the 19th century.
Scientific theories, political plans but also artistic projects
were worked out and discussed in Viennese coffee houses all over Central Europe. James Joyce even enjoyed his coffee in a Viennese coffee house on the Adriatic in Trieste,
then and now the main port for coffee and coffee processing in Italy
and Central Europe. From there, the Viennese Kapuziner coffee developed
into today's world-famous cappuccino.
This special multicultural atmosphere of the Habsburg coffee houses was
largely destroyed by the later National Socialism and Communism and can
only be found today in a few places that have long been in the
slipstream of history, such as Vienna or Trieste.
The first known cafes in Pest date back to 1714
when a house intended to serve as a Cafe (Balázs Kávéfőző) was
purchased. Minutes of the Pest City Council from 1729 mention complaints
by the Balázs cafe and Franz Reschfellner Cafe against the
Italian-originated cafe of Francesco Bellieno for selling underpriced
coffee.
Ireland
In the 18th century, Dublin
coffeehouses functioned as early reading centers and the emergence of
circulation and subscription libraries that provided greater access to
printed material for the public. The interconnectivity of the
coffeehouse and virtually every aspect of the print trade were evidenced
by the incorporation of printing, publishing, selling, and viewing of
newspapers, pamphlets and books on the premises, most notably in the
case of Dick's Coffee House, owned by Richard Pue; thus contributing to a culture of reading and increased literacy.
These coffeehouses were a social magnet where different strata of
society came together to discuss topics covered by the newspapers and
pamphlets. Most coffeehouses of the 18th century would eventually be
equipped with their own printing presses or incorporate a book shop.
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a café (with an acute accent) may be similar to those in other European countries, while a cafe (without an acute accent and often pronounced "caff") is more likely to be a British cafe-style eating place, typically serving home-cooked or fried food, and sometimes colloquially known as a "greasy spoon".
Switzerland
In 1761 the Turm Kaffee, a shop for exported goods, was opened in St. Gallen.
Gender
The
exclusion of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear
to have been common in Europe. In Germany, women frequented them, but in
England and France they were banned. Émilie du Châtelet purportedly cross-dressed to gain entrance to a coffeehouse in Paris.
In a well-known engraving of a Parisian café c. 1700,
the gentlemen hang their hats on pegs and sit at long communal tables
strewn with papers and writing implements. Coffee pots are ranged at an
open fire, with a hanging cauldron of boiling water. The only woman
present presides, separated in a canopied booth, from which she serves coffee in tall cups.
Contemporary
In most European countries, such as Spain, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, and others, the term café means a restaurant primarily serving coffee, as well as pastries such as cakes, tarts, pies, or buns. Many cafés also serve light meals such as sandwiches. European cafés often have tables on the pavement (sidewalk) as well as indoors. Some cafés also serve alcoholic drinks (e.g., wine), particularly in Southern Europe. In the Netherlands and Belgium, a café is the equivalent of a bar, and also sells alcoholic drinks. In the Netherlands a koffiehuis serves coffee, while a coffee shop (using the English term) sells "soft" drugs (cannabis and hashish)
and is generally not allowed to sell alcoholic drinks. In France, most
cafés serve as lunch restaurants in the day, and bars in the evening.
They generally do not have pastries except in the mornings, when a croissant or pain au chocolat can be purchased with breakfast coffee. In Italy, cafés are similar to those found in France and known as bar.
They typically serve a variety of espresso coffee, cakes and alcoholic
drinks. Bars in city centers usually have different prices for
consumption at the bar and consumption at a table.
Americas
Argentina
Café Tortoni is an emblematic café in Buenos Aires. Frequented by Jorge Luis Borges among many other figures of Argentina.
Coffeehouses are part of the culture of Buenos Aires
and the customs of its inhabitants. They are traditional meeting places
for 'porteños' and have inspired innumerable artistic creations. Some
notable coffeehouses include Confitería del Molino, Café Tortoni, El Gato Negro, Café La Biela.
The first coffeehouse in America opened in Boston, in 1676. However, Americans did not start choosing coffee over tea until the Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary War. After the Revolutionary War, Americans momentarily went back to drinking tea until after the War of 1812
when they began importing high-quality coffee from Latin America and
expensive inferior-quality tea from American shippers instead of Great
Britain.
Whether they were drinking coffee or tea, coffeehouses served a similar
purpose that they did in Great Britain as places where business was
done. In the 1780s, Merchant's Coffee House located on Wall Street in
New York City was home to the organization of the Bank of New York and the New York Chamber of Commerce.
Coffeehouses in the United States arose from the espresso-
and pastry-centered Italian coffeehouses of the Italian American
immigrant communities in the major U.S. cities, notably New York City's Little Italy and Greenwich Village, Boston's North End, and San Francisco's North Beach. From the late 1950s onward, coffeehouses also served as a venue for entertainment, most commonly folk performers during the American folk music revival. Both Greenwich Village and North Beach became major haunts of the Beats,
who were highly identified with these coffeehouses. As the youth
culture of the 1960s evolved, non-Italians consciously copied these
coffeehouses. The political nature of much of 1960s folk music made the
music a natural tie-in with coffeehouses with their association with
political action. A number of well-known performers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan began their careers performing in coffeehouses. Blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins
bemoaned his woman's inattentiveness to her domestic situation due to
her overindulgence in coffeehouse socializing in his 1969 song
"Coffeehouse Blues".
In 1966, Alfred Peet began applying the dark roast style to high quality beans and opened up a small shop in Berkeley, California to educate customers on the virtues of good coffee. Starting in 1967 with the opening of the historic Last Exit on Brooklyn coffeehouse, Seattle became known for its thriving countercultural coffeehouse scene; the Starbucks chain later standardized and mainstreamed this espresso bar model.
From the 1960s through the mid-1980s, churches and individuals in
the United States used the coffeehouse concept for outreach. They were
often storefronts and had names like The Lost Coin (Greenwich Village), The Gathering Place (Riverside, CA), Catacomb Chapel (New York City), and Jesus For You (Buffalo, NY). Christian music (often guitar-based) was performed, coffee and food was provided, and Bible studies
were convened as people of varying backgrounds gathered in a casual
setting that was purposefully different from traditional churches. An
out-of-print book, published by the ministry of David Wilkerson, titled,
A Coffeehouse Manual, served as a guide for Christian coffeehouses, including a list of name suggestions for coffeehouses.
They are popular to this day with coffeehouses such as Starbucks on seemingly every corner of several major American cities, such as Los Angeles and Seattle.
Coffeehouses often sell pastries or other food items
Cafés may have an outdoor section (terrace, pavement or sidewalk café)
with seats, tables and parasols. This is especially the case with
European cafés. Cafés offer a more open public space compared to many of
the traditional pubs they have replaced, which were more male dominated
with a focus on drinking alcohol.
One of the original uses of the café, as a place for information
exchange and communication, was reintroduced in the 1990s with the Internet café or Hotspot.
The spread of modern-style cafés to urban and rural areas went
hand-in-hand with the rising use of mobile computers. Computers and
Internet access in a contemporary-styled venue help to create a
youthful, modern place, compared to the traditional pubs or
old-fashioned diners that they replaced.
Middle East and Asia
In the Middle East, the coffeehouse (Arabic: مقهىmaqha; Persian: قهوه خانهqahveh-khaneh; Turkish: kahvehane or kırâthane) serves as an important social gathering place for men. Men assemble in coffeehouses to drink coffee (usually Arabic coffee) and tea. In addition, men go there to listen to music, read books, play chess and backgammon, watch TV and enjoy other social activities around the Arab world and in Turkey. Hookah (shisha) is traditionally served as well.
Coffeehouses in Egypt are colloquially called 'ahwah/ʔhwa/, which is the dialectal pronunciation of قَهْوةqahwah (literally "coffee") (see also Arabic phonology#Local variations). Also commonly served in 'ahwah are tea (shāy) and herbal teas, especially the highly popular hibiscus blend (Egyptian Arabic: karkadeh or ennab). The first 'ahwah
opened around the 1850s and were originally patronized mostly by older
people, with youths frequenting but not always ordering. There were
associated by the 1920s with clubs (Cairo), bursa (Alexandria) and gharza (rural inns). In the early 20th century, some of them became crucial venues for political and social debates.
In India, coffee culture has expanded in the past twenty years. Chains like Indian Coffee House, Café Coffee Day, Barista Lavazza have become very popular. Cafes are considered good venues to conduct office meetings and for friends to meet.
In China, an abundance of recently started domestic coffeehouse chains may be seen accommodating business people for conspicuous consumption, with coffee prices sometimes even higher than in the West.
In Malaysia and Singapore, traditional breakfast and coffee shops are called kopi tiam. The word is a portmanteau of the Malay word for coffee (as borrowed and altered from English) and the Hokkien dialect word for shop (店; POJ: tiàm). Menus typically feature simple offerings: a variety of foods based on egg, toast, and coconut jam, plus coffee, tea, and Milo, a malted chocolate drink that is extremely popular in Southeast Asia and Australasia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia.
In the Philippines, coffee shop chains like Starbucks became prevalent in upper and middle class professionals especially in Makati. However, Carinderias
also serve coffee alongside viands. Events such as "Kapihan" often
officiated at bakeshops and restaurants that also served coffee for
breakfast and merienda.
In Thailand, the term "café" is not only a coffeehouse in the
international definition, as in other countries, but in the past was
considered a night restaurant that servesalcoholic drinks during a comedy show on stage. The era in which this type of business flourished was the 1990s, before the 1997 financial crisis.
The first real coffeehouse in Thailand opened in 1917 at the Si Kak Phraya Si in the area of Rattanakosin Island, by Madam Cole, an American woman who living in Thailand at that time, Later, Chao Phraya
Ram Rakop (เจ้าพระยารามราฆพ), Thai aristocrat, opened a coffeehouse
named "Café de Norasingha" (คาเฟ่นรสิงห์) located at Sanam Suea Pa
(สนามเสือป่า), the ground next to the Royal Plaza. At present, Café de Norasingha has been renovated and moved to within Phayathai Palace. In the southern region, a traditional coffeehouse or kopi tiam is popular with locals, like many countries in the Malay Peninsula.
Australia
The Federal Coffee Palace, built on Collins Street, Melbourne, in 1888, was the largest and grandest Coffee Palace ever built. It was demolished in 1973.
In modern Australia, coffee shops are ubiquitously known as cafés. Since the post-World War II
influx of Italian immigrants introduced the first espresso coffee
machines to Australia in the 1950s, there was initially a slow rise in
café culture, particularly in Melbourne, until a boom in locally-owned
cafés Australia-wide began in the 1990s. Alongside the rise in the
number of cafés there has been a rise in demand for locally (or on-site)
roasted specialty coffee, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. A local favourite is the "flat white" which remains a popular coffee drink.
Africa
In Cairo,
the capital of Egypt, most cafés have shisha (waterpipe). Most
Egyptians indulge in the habit of smoking shisha while hanging out at
the café, watching a match, studying, or even sometimes finishing some
work. In Addis Ababa,
the capital of Ethiopia, independent coffeehouses that struggled prior
to 1991 have become popular with young professionals who do not have
time for traditional coffee roasting at home. One establishment that has
become well-known is the Tomoca coffee shop, which opened in 1953.
Europe
United Kingdom
The patrons of the first coffeehouse in England, The Angel, which opened in Oxford in 1650,
and the mass of London coffee houses that flourished over the next
three centuries, were far removed from those of modern Britain. Haunts
for teenagers in particular, Italian-run espresso bars and their formica-topped tables were a feature of 1950s Soho that provided a backdrop as well as a title for Cliff Richard's 1960 film Expresso Bongo. The first was The Moka in Frith Street, opened by Gina Lollobrigida in 1953. With their "exotic Gaggiacoffee machine[s],... Coke, Pepsi, weak frothy coffee and... Suncrush orange fountain[s]"
they spread to other urban centers during the 1960s, providing cheap,
warm places for young people to congregate and an ambience far removed
from the global coffee bar standard that would be established in the
final decades of the century by chains such as Starbucks and Pret a Manger.
Espresso bar
Interior of an espresso bar from Baliuag, Philippines
The espresso bar is a type of coffeehouse that specializes in coffee drinks made from espresso.
Originating in Italy, the espresso bar has spread throughout the world
in various forms. Prime examples that are internationally known are Starbucks Coffee, based in Seattle, U.S., and Costa Coffee, based in Dunstable,
U.K. (the first and second largest coffeehouse chains respectively),
although the espresso bar exists in some form throughout much of the
world.
The espresso bar is typically centered around a long counter with a high-yield espresso machine (usually bean to cup machines,
automatic or semiautomatic pump-type machine, although occasionally a
manually operated lever-and-piston system) and a display case containing
pastries and occasionally savory items such as sandwiches. In the
traditional Italian bar, customers either order at the bar and consume
their drinks standing or, if they wish to sit down and be served, are
usually charged a higher price. In some bars there is an additional
charge for drinks served at an outside table. In other countries,
especially the United States, seating areas for customers to relax and
work are provided free of charge. Some espresso bars also sell coffee
paraphernalia, candy, and even music. North American espresso bars were
also at the forefront of widespread adoption of public WiFi access points to provide Internet services to people doing work on laptop computers on the premises.
The offerings at the typical espresso bar are generally quite Italianate in inspiration; biscotti, cannoli and pizzelle are a common traditional accompaniment to a caffe latte or cappuccino.
Some upscale espresso bars even offer alcoholic drinks such as grappa
and sambuca. Nevertheless, typical pastries are not always strictly
Italianate and common additions include scones, muffins, croissants, and even doughnuts.
There is usually a large selection of teas as well, and the North
American espresso bar culture is responsible for the popularization of
the Indian spiced tea drink masala chai.
Iced drinks are also popular in some countries, including both iced tea
and iced coffee as well as blended drinks such as Starbucks' Frappucino.
A worker in an espresso bar is referred to as a barista.
The barista is a skilled position that requires familiarity with the
drinks being made (often very elaborate, especially in North
American-style espresso bars), a reasonable facility with some equipment
as well as the usual customer service skills.
Sustainable coffee is coffee that is grown and marketed for its sustainability. This includes coffee certified as organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance.
Coffee has a number of classifications used to determine the
participation of growers (or the supply chain) in various combinations
of social, environmental, and economic standards. Coffees fitting such
categories and that are independently certified or verified by an
accredited third party have been collectively termed "sustainable
coffees". This term has entered the lexicon and this segment has quickly
grown into a multibillion-dollar industry of its own with potentially
significant implications for other commodities as demand and awareness
expand.
Early history and definition
Coffee
has several types of classifications used to determine the
participation of growers (or the supply chain) in various combinations
of social, environmental, and economic standards. Coffees fitting such
categories and that are independently certified or verified by an
accredited third party have been collectively termed "sustainable
coffees." The term "sustainable coffee" was first introduced in expert
meetings convened by the Smithsonian Institution Migratory Bird Center
(SMBC), NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and the
Consumer Choice Council (CCC) in 1998. The CCC's 1999 report,
"Sustainable Coffee at the Crossroads"
is the first use of the term in the public sphere. It discusses
interpretations of sustainability and identifies options such as organic
and fair trade as "sustainable coffee", though it does not offer a
single functional definition.
The CCC report emerged during the same period as notable World Bank publications and an IMF paper
that were among the first to identify the economic and social problems
in coffee origins that would be the basis of the coffee crisis that more
fully unfolded early in the 2000s. The SMBC contributed some of the
earliest evidence of the environmental impacts occurring in some of the
most important coffee growing regions of Central America.
The ecological and economic concerns were discussed at meetings hosted
by the CEC ("Workshop of Experts on Sustainably-produced Mexican Coffee"
in Oaxaca in 2000 that resulted in The Oaxaca Declaration. The International Coffee Organization
(ICO) voiced and documented some of the factors leading to the crisis,
especially the dramatic decline in coffee prices to producers.
First market estimates
Initial
trade volumes were estimates because no agency, including the
certifiers themselves, accurately tracked them at the time.
The first thorough assessment and the first concise definition appeared
in research documents commissioned by several organizations in 2001.
The Summit Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the Specialty Coffee Association of America, and the World Bank
combined to fund and publish the first large-scale assessment of the
markets, the value and the volumes for these coffees (a statistically
significant random sample across North America of 1558 retailers, 570
roasters, 312 wholesalers, 120 distributors, and 94 importers). The
resulting "Sustainable Coffee Survey of the North American Specialty
Coffee Industry".
indicated the availability of four primary certified sustainable
coffees(in order of importance then): Organic, Fair Trade, Bird Friendly
(Smithsonian Institution Migratory Bird Center), and Rainforest
Alliance.
During the nadir of the recent coffee crisis (2001–2003), prices
reached record low levels (49 US cents/lb according to the ICO indicator
price, April 2001) and left many producers in very difficult
conditions. By 2003, the idea of sustainable coffee was starting to
become a common topic at conferences, in research, and in policy
discussions. "The State of Sustainable Coffee"
published by the International Coffee Organization and the
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in 2003 noted
that sustainable coffees provide new opportunities to coffee producers
who face difficult prices and production conditions that otherwise keep
them in poverty. The book was the first dedicated to the topic of
sustainable coffee and outlines the development of evolving concepts for
sustainability in coffee and was also the first to identify the market
channels, market conditions and volumes for sustainable coffees in
European markets and Japan.
David Hallam, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations' (FAO) commodity chief, in 2003 notes that
"...organic and fair trade products can also command a premium price."
However, these premiums were somewhat limited. By 2004, a World Bank report, "Coffee Markets: New Paradigms in Global Supply and Demand"
substantiated that structural shifts in the global industry of coffee
will likely hinder significant advances for many producing nations to
more equitably participate in what is the world’s most valuable
agricultural trade product. It also confirmed coffee's importance in
more than 50 countries and its value in a number of producer countries
as a primary, and sometimes only, source of cash income for many
farmers. It noted that "differentiated segments", in which certified
coffees such as organic and fair trade are included, "can provide
producers with competitive advantages and added value." It further
suggested that these are "important because of their growth rates and
their potential to provide better social, economic, or environmental
benefits for farmers". By this point, in mid-decade, the category of
sustainable coffees was firmly established as one of the emerging
paradigms in the global production and trade of coffee. The same World
Bank report identified that the production of such sustainable coffees
had expanded beyond mostly Latin American origins to include modest
exports from Africa and Asia.
Sustainable coffee initiatives expand
By the mid-2000s, sustainable coffees came to include new certification initiatives such as UTZ Certified
and Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C) as well as certifications
used exclusively by individual firms (Starbucks and Nespresso). Most
certifications are now widely available not only in specialty stores and
cafés but also in major supermarkets and under national brand names of
global food companies such as Kraft and Sara Lee. At the ICO 2010 World Coffee Conference, former World Bank coffee expert Daniele Giovannucci noted that in 2009 more than 8% of the global trade in raw (green)
coffee was certified to one of the major sustainability initiatives. As
of 2016, at least 34% of global coffee production was compliant with
voluntary sustainability standards.
Though growing quickly, sustainable certified coffees still
constitute only a few percent of the total purchasing of the largest
coffee brands owned by Nestlé, Kraft, and Sara Lee. The leading global brands, in terms of volumes purchased, are Starbucks, whose private certification (C.A.F.E. Practices) covers nearly 90% of its purchases, and Nespresso whose purchase of sustainable coffees (Rainforest Alliance Certified) now accounts for more than half of its total buying.
A novel type of sustainable coffee initiatives is the development of synthetic coffee. In 2021, media outlets reported that the world's first synthetic coffee products have been created by two bioeconomy companies, still awaiting regulatory approvals for near-term commercialization. Such products – which can be produced via cellular agriculture in bioreactors and for which multiple companies' R&D
have acquired substantial funding – may have equal or highly similar
effects, molecular-level composition and taste as natural products but
use less water, generate less carbon emissions, require less labor and cause no deforestation.
Current issues
From
a market share of zero to a share 8% of the global coffee industry in
one decade suggests that sustainable coffees are no longer a small
niche. Efforts are underway by various certification bodies,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global food companies to
develop the production of sustainable coffees in the poorest regions of
the world, such as Africa, and to measure the actual impacts that the
various initiatives, standards and certifications. Whilst a number of
papers have been published on the topic, high quality research is still
lacking. Resources for the Future, a research think tank, undertook a
broad literature review in 2010 and identified 37 relevant studies, only
14 of which use methods likely to generate credible results. Allen
Blackman and Jorge Rivera, the authors of "The Evidence Base for
Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of 'Sustainable' Certification" conclude that empirical evidence is limited and that much more research
is necessary to understand whether these initiatives are having the
claimed impacts.
Furthermore, private certification programs are attempting to
fill gaps in existing government and international regulations.
Third-party initiatives bypass the structures in place by both the state
and the coffee industry. Existing as a private enterprise, accountable mostly to their mission and funders, non-governmental can become susceptible to neoliberal
market forces. In a desire to expand their specialty markets,
certifications have the potential to become more of a branding technique
to attract consumers with specialty labels.
Certification initiatives rely on consumer choice, a neoliberal
intervention which can incite NGOs to prioritize market growth as
opposed to the ecological and humanitarian protection at the core of the
organization.
There are however regulations that exist. The International
Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance is
a global association for social and environmental standards whose
members include many of the major standards systems active in
sustainable coffee such as: Fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified
and the 4C Association. Its members have resolved to abide by applying a
new Impacts Code in 2010 that requires them to develop a transparent
Assessment Plan to provide reasonable measurement of their impacts.
Another initiative is already developing and applying scientific metrics
to understand sustainability impacts at the field level. The non-profit
Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA), is a neutral consortium founded through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and the UN International Trade Centre
(ITC) in 2006 to develop a scientifically credible framework to assess
social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability
initially in the coffee sector. COSA emerged from the concerns of coffee
industry practitioners about the lack of knowledge and sound scientific
inquiry on what happens in the process of adopting sustainability
initiatives. The unanimous International Coffee Organization
endorsement of the COSA program (2016) noted that COSA builds
management capacity with local partnerships in producing countries to
facilitate an understanding of the effects (costs and benefits) of the
many sustainability initiatives. The COSA Measuring Sustainability Report: Coffee and Cocoa in 12 Countries
outlines the main issues facing sustainable coffee and presents the
results of their research (2009-2013) into the economic, social and
environmental impacts of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS).The
United Nations International Trade Centre
(ITC) and its Trade for Sustainable Development program is also
developing a global online platform to better understand the
distinctions of the diverse sustainability initiatives with basic
comparisons of the standards and also a mapping system of their
availability.
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