Could the single origin coffee movement be the end of coffee fetishism?
Hitching a ride at the back of a pickup truck, renting a helicopter and crossing perilous waters under the heat of 98 degrees weather in Kampala, Uganda were just some of the normal things that coffee magnate and adventurer Todd Carmichael does to harvest coffee beans. These weren’t just any coffee beans. These were supposedly the best coffee beans one can find in the world.
But this was Uganda. Its violent and bloody past has made the locals distrustful of outsiders whose intentions might do more harm than bring awareness to the living conditions. The founder of La Colombe Coffee Roasters has tried many, many times to procure coffee from its dangerous grounds, but unsuccessful. But Todd Carmichael believes in one philosophy to beat the odds. “It’s always to challenge yourself and pushing the envelope. Don’t accept the easiest and lowest hanging fruit,” says the host of Travel Channel’s Dangerous Grounds show. True enough, Todd Carmichael’s charitable quest to rebuild the Trinity School burned down by arsonists in Kampala pushed him to the edge, even going as far as sealing a blood pact with one of the farmers in a country known for its high rate of HIV.
It’s rare to catch a bag of La Colombe Coffee Roasters Uganda brew sitting on the shelves of Dean and DeLuca stores should one wish to brew for Todd Carmichael’s cause. Strong in orange zest, plum sweetness, savory, depth and milk chocolates, Uganda brew’s cupping notes earn nods from coffee aficionados, food critics and average Joe’s. “The milk chocolate really shines with subtle hints of dates and figs as the cup cools!” one user commented on Facebook.
La Colombe Coffee Roasters is just one of the few institutions that made the single origin coffee movement the way it is today. Suddenly, in this era where coffee is held at an artisanal value, everyone is a coffee expert, forgetting the first wave surge that established Folgers coffee a permanent sight on every dining table and the second wave of grande latte and frappuccino’s brought by Peet’s Coffee and Tea and Starbucks. Headed by the “Big Three of Third Wave Coffee” institutions Chicago’s Intelligentsia, North Carolina’s Counter Culture, and Portland’s Stumptown, the third wave transformed the palate of the consumer to gear towards the highest distinction and appreciation of coffee.
Could the single origin coffee movement be the end of coffee fetishism? As its name implies, the coffee beans are handpicked from farms and processed to bring out its subtle flavors and hidden characteristics rather than producing for mass consumption. One does not simply order a pour-over of Ethiopian brew while reflecting the dangerous lengths it takes to commercialize it, from farms to roasters to warehouses and shelves, no matter how long it takes for one to decide between Robusta beans harvested from Uganda or Ethiopia. The single origin coffee movement highly suggests more machineries at work, its commoditization today an extreme contrast to its existential purpose, that is, to bring coffee at an artisanal value. Appadurai’s elementary framework on exploring the disjunctures in the global cultural economy today could elevate some understanding to the single origin coffee phenomenon. Picture the setting of a less gentrified neighborhood. Ethnoscapes brought thriving artists and budding entrepreneurs to open intimate, artistic coffee spaces to the hungry consumer. The state of Finanscapes flicked a switch in the minds of real estate agents to draw in the more affluent to experience the authenticity of the neighborhood, as told by Sharon Zukin in Naked City. The elements of Mediascapes and Technoscapes worked hand-in-hand to create a powerful dynamic that altered the perception of the Folgers-drinking consumer. The ease of use and portability of smartphones created a proliferation of wannabe photographers. Suddenly, Instagram is flooded with artsy cafes and latte art, captioned with several coffee and heart emojis. Finally, Ideoscapes drew in more agents into the single origin coffee movement with the average Joe learning the skills to concoct his own brew using the Hario V60 dripper in the comfort of his home.
There are hardly any signs that the single origin coffee movement is dying. The trend is here to stay. And until then, one can argue that while the single origin coffee movement changed people’s preferences for the better to a more conscious consumer, subtly, the movement echoes of production fetishism cloaked with an even bigger fetishism at work — Deception.
