Week 3

I have been a devout coffee addict since high school. Sadly enough, coffee was the secret to all my late-night study sessions and full-time summer job. Apart from fueling my daily activities, stopping at Starbucks to pick up a quick drink became a habit for me, where I would take my lunch breaks to study or simply find a quiet spot to relax. Recently, I found I like doing things alone instead of with groups of people. "Going out for coffee" usually represents groups of people socializing over coffee in an intimate or casual setting.

Coffee originates everywhere from South America to Africa to Asia. As a plant, coffee has been cultivated for hundreds of years as a food crop. Coffee is mainly known as a drink, but around the world it also could have been consumed raw, as a seed, for its energizing purposes. After its popularity increased, coffee quickly became commercialized around the world, allowing people everywhere to get the "coffeehouse experience." While technology continues to change society around us, I think coffee is going to be one social activity that will remain the same until another food crop with the same amount of caffeine pops out of the ground. Coffee remains a universal concept of social interactions and a value of all modern cultures.

The concept of going out for coffee tells us that fast, convenient food is a major factor of American society. Whether it is a date or a professional meeting, Americans value spending money on caffeinated drinks that are fast to make but take a toll on our health (hello, 700 calorie frappuccinos). Both consumer and entrepreneur benefit from the sales of coffee, but the actual producers of coffee, who must labor to cultivate this crop across the globe for exporting without proper compensation, are the ones who suffer from the sales of coffee.

Again, coffee is a universal symbol of social interaction. In countries where coffee is produced, like Brazil, it is probably seen as work instead of leisure but in modern-day countries like France where coffee is exported, the stripped coffee beans are brewed to create the drink that not only fuels our systems, but our society as well.