The Rise of Yuppie Coffees & The Reimagination of Class in the U.S.

1. The Rise of Yuppie Coffees & The Reimagination of Class in the U.S. William Roseberry

2. 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

3. Proletarian Hunger Killers • When coffee, as the beverage of choice in working and middle class homes and factory canteens is linked to the 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)

4. 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

5. 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 specialty 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.?

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 revolution- Improvement 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

11. 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 specialty 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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…

22. Tool of Post-modernism?

23. 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

24. 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

25. Choose the right bean: Your coffee selection has the potential for powerful economic and environmental change.