Research ideas: On connoisseurship and what happens when somebody spoils the party

Tempus fugit, not that I have to remind anybody. Spring is very officially here (even yesterday’s unexpected snowstorm- 23 heavy centimetres, a new record for this date, are going to make the grass green), the lilacs will soon enough be blocking the light from the windows in my basement cave here, I have ONE week of classes left to teach, and, even though I did not get my bloody SSHRC grant, I have to start think about what I want to accomplish research-wise over the summer.

Well, I don’t have the budget for travel and the sort of fieldwork that travel permits, but I have lots of ideas around the “coffee” theme still, and the one I want to cogitate on today (in this post- watch me cogitate!) has to do with two coffee-related news items of late:

1. McDonald’s is going to have “baristas” at its stores (some? all?) in the US. Now, this effort of McDonald’s to sell “specialty coffee” is not new; in fact, anybody who’s been abroad, in Asia, South America, or Europe, and for all I know in Australia or the Middle East and elsewhere, has been exposed to the “McCafe.” We saw these when Brian and I were in Argentina in 2004 (and noted that they were all 100% smoking- not so in the one I ducked into in Cologne, which was one of the very few NON-smoking refuges in that smoky city). My only experience actually drinking the coffee (a double espresso) there was laughably bad, but that’s not really the point. Well, it is sort of the point, but the REAL point is what happens when an already corporatised and watered-down thing that used to be the provenance of aficionados- espresso and espresso-based drinks- gets FURTHER routinised and bastardised by being sold out of a McDonald’s.

I just saw a commercial on one of the US stations about this, and I’d love to link it but can’t (yet) find it online. Two women are at a woody-looking coffeehouse and one says, “Did you hear McDonald’s is selling LATTES?” They both erupt into relief about how now they don’t have to act all snobby and read books and so forth. It’s actually pretty funny and reflects how this dumbing-down is part of McD’s promotional strategy, and is reflected in their “unsnobby  coffee” web campaign too. But what about us coffeegeeks? Is something being usurped here? Well, no, not “taste.” But this does give us (and me, wearing my sociologist hat) something to talk about.

2. Starbucks bought Clover Equipment. A “Clover” is a machine that make brewed coffee a la minute and by the cup. Before Clover, brewed coffee had to made in pots or receptacles that entailed making a huge batch at once and selling progressively-less-fresh cups; what’s more, those cups all had to have the same blend or varietal of coffee. If a customer wanted an Ethiopian Sidamo and all that was in the pot was a “house” blend, a decaf, and, say, a Colombian, then there was no way to give the customer her Sidamo. The only alternative would be personal drip stations or press pots which both take several minutes, for one cup (versus the 20 or so seconds it takes to make espresso, but this isn’t about espresso). Enter the Clover, which makes ONLY single cups and does it fast, about as fast as espresso, and permits the operator to “Clover” any bean in stock. Very cool. Until recently, Clovers were the provenance of a small number of shops that could afford the technology (about C$11,000 per maker, versus say $2500 for a standard drip maker) and who had the customer base who knew enough to support it. Clovers shine at bringing taste profiles out of good beans, and good beans are expensive. So Clover-brewed coffee tends to be expensive as well.

The entrepreneurs at Clover sold the company earlier this year and as of now it looks as if they’ll delimit all sales of new Clovers to Starbucks ONLY. It does appear that they (Starbucks, presumably) will still provide service and support for these machines, but there has already been fallout from the third-wave coffee community about this, to the extent that one outstanding shop/roaster (Stumptown in Portland) has sold all of its Clovers. They don’t want to be affiliated with or otherwise attached to Starbucks. We have three shops in Calgary with Clovers at this time- Phil & Sebastian, Caffe Artigiano and the opening-very-soon Kawa Espresso Bar. I’ll keep my ear to the ground.

These two developments- the McDonald’s “invasion” into specialty coffee and the Clover sale- are sociologically interesting because they expose and problematise issues surrounding “taste” and distinction. This sort of thing is a constant challenge to connoisseurs: what happens when your “thing” is usurped? Well, we’re seeing it happening right now in the coffee culture, and I look forward to following it.