*This article was written in response to Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, 1957

Alexandra Jacoby, Coffeehouse, 1998

“It is black and yet it clears our brain. So it produces light in our brain. Then it is something that went through fire – it has a certain hellish connotation. So there is a black magic associated with coffee.” – Ernesto Illy

Coffee: one could not find a better illustration of the fact that any weekday morning is a struggle between the eyelids – who want to remain as tightly shut as possible – and the eyes – who squeeze out the last droplets of darkness in favour of distinguishing the first colours and shapes for the day ahead. In the end, it is the lure of the brew that must win out. Pungent aromas drifting from the open doorways of coffeehouses beckon workers to detour from their prosaic trudge to the office, huddled as they may be inside their thick sweater, at least long enough to plunk down a fistful of hard-earned coins in exchange for the black drug that will open their eyes once and for all. How appropriate that the first direct monetary transaction of the day involves the world’s second largest exported product (behind oil). Clearly creating a powerful habitual draw, coffee can be recognized not only in its forms, which are all functional, but also in the substance of its occurrence; its mythological culture.

The dark espresso, the milky latte, and the foamy cappuccino (see here Barthes analysis of foam – “it signifies luxury…it appears to lack any usefulness, its abundant, easy, almost infinite proliferation allows one to suppose there is in the substance from which it issues…a healthy and powerful essence”) require the elevated taste of the bourgeoisie who stands patiently waiting as the drink is concocted out of the steaming, hissing machinery behind the counter. In fact, the image of the machinery in the coffeehouse resembles a nineteenth-century Monet painting of coal-fired train engines paused momentarily in a Parisian station, waiting to tear across the French countryside. Just as it did then, so again does the sight of industry promise the exhilaration of speed and efficiency. In the time it takes for one of these specialty brews to be poured into a cardboard cup, an anxious queue has formed and a second Barista is called from the back of the shop to don an apron and commence with the dispensing of liquid jolts. Compare these with the simpler, more rapid, and proletarian ‘cup of joe’, whose sole purpose is to warm the intestines and rush blood to the brain.

Although it is rare to see anyone languishing at its tables and chairs during the early hours of the day, the coffeehouse is designed to invite both socializing and quiet observation. Decorated in warm hues mimicking the warm, ‘homemade’ goods on the countertops, the coffeehouse is an ideal spot for friends and relatives looking for a common locale in which to meet briefly and regularly without the pomp and circumstance required for a more formal trip to a restaurant, or the expense entailed with a pub crawl. Individuals seeking a private experience in the midst of strangers are welcomed into the coffeehouse by the familiarity of its staff and the piles of newspapers and books scattered amongst the tables behind which, the lonely drinker can hide or, at the very least, appear preoccupied. A rotating display of amateur paintings by local artists drop down from the walls, sealing an illusion of outreach between the coffeehouse and its surrounding community, and blissfully representing its attempt at alignment with art and ‘culture’. And in so doing, the coffeehouse stands like a beacon of its own culture: coffee culture, a world on its own, in which each eloquent signifier is constructed to draw one back to the…bottom-line…signified…product.

Coffee is a part of society because it creates a ‘ceremonial environment’ in everyday life. The mythology of coffee lies in the way in which it has been naturalized as a substance of relief and stimulation. A worker takes a coffee-break in order to escape from the drudgery of the workday. A grad student gulps mouthfuls of hot coffee over piles of reading in order to remain alert for hours on end. The myth is not an innocent one. Although coffee is a delicious fluid in itself, its production and consumption is also acutely involved in a capitalism that favours developed Western nations over third-world countries (retailers like the coffeehouse are joined, thereby, with farmers in Ethiopia and Guatemala).