We all drink coffee—well most of us do anyway. In the United States alone, 400 million cups of coffee are consumed per year—not to mention the average American drinks around 3 cups a day. With that being said, I think it’s pretty safe to say that coffee is a huge part of everyday lives—but have you ever wondered when and why this came to be? Whose idea was it to drink coffee? Where did these chain cafe shops come from? What the hell is “The Charli”? Well, let’s take a dive into our coffee culture.
Do you love your country? Want to show it? Then drink a damn cup of coffee! Although the coffee drink we are familiar with has been around since the 13th century, it wasn’t integrated into American culture until the start of America itself. As part of the American revolt against British tyranny rule, colonists refused to drink tea (which is a cultural staple of the British). Instead, colonists began to drink coffee. Eventually, Americans began to grow their own coffee plants and began to turn a serious profit.
As our country was founded, coffee quickly became a staple of American culture, especially during the 19th century. If you remember your middle school and high school American history classes, you might recall learning about America’s great western expansion. The big question is whether or not your teacher explained to you how important coffee was in fueling, almost literally, America’s quest towards manifest destiny.
During this time of expansion and adventure, the United States became the largest consumer of coffee in the entire world- at one point bringing in around 40% of the world’s coffee product. SPOILER ALERT: We still are. These imports and consumption came in to supply all sorts of different explorers and adventurers.
Western cowboys sat around fires boiling up coffee and telling stories whenever they had a break from their work. Coffee was a prized possession in the West and cowboys were rumored to have drank coffee with every meal to stay energized through long nights. Cowboys were also said to have been extremely talented with recognizing different coffee blends and beans purely based on taste alone.
The California gold miners were also very big coffee drinkers. As they sought great fortune moving out west, miners relied on coffee to stay awake and to keep themselves working fast during the long hours they spent mining for gold. The issue for them was the fact that they came to the (then) mining town of San Francisco with little to nothing. Any extra food, clothes, and supplies that they needed they had to buy from local merchants. Western merchants saw an opportunity to take advantage of a very vulnerable group of people and charged crazy high prices for bare essential products. Sometimes, their coffee price would shoot up to around 100 dollars per pound, making it very difficult for miners to profit.
Coffee even fueled up soldiers for battle during the American Civil War. In fact, Union soldiers were actually given yearly coffee rations to keep them up and ready for combat, while they marched, and for other military missions. Coffee was actually quite an obsession for the Union troops. In fact, Smithsonian experts found that they mentioned the word ‘coffee’ more in their war journals than any other war term. Imagine caring that much about your coffee!
Due to this age of expansion and high demand for coffee products, we were given the invention of instant coffee and saw the rise of mass produced coffee goods. This also leads us to the way we see coffee in our culture to this very day.
In 1966 Alfred Peet started his very own coffee shop in North Berkeley, California, which was cleverly named “Peet’s Coffee.” The shop was unique in the fact that it was the very first of its kind. Peet’s sold freshly brewed coffee, espresso, french vanilla, and even introduced Americans to the dark roasted Arabic blend. Peet set the standard for what we know coffee shops to be in American culture and, believe it or not, he even trained the three founders of Starbucks (who opened their first store in 1971).
Between Starbucks and Peet’s, we saw a rise of specialized drinks, unique blends, and a brand new coffee shop culture. Coffee shops became a trendy place to socialize at this point in time. You would meet up with old friends, go on a first date, or simply go to the coffee shop to have a fun place to do some work (especially now with internet cafes). This surge in coffee culture helped build the foundation to what we experience today.
Although lots of cafes are similar, many chains have begun to take advantage of social media influencers to try and gain an edge against their competitors. This practice has been popular amongst all sorts of companies as it allows businesses to reach a ton of viewers by using one influencer to spread the message, whether it be via YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok. This year especially has been especially reliant on celebrity and influencer endorsed products. With younger audiences being more active on social media (large increase in use since COVID-19 hit), popular platforms like Tik Tok have been targeted as corporate advertising opportunities. In relation to coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts has agreed to terms with Tik Tok sensation Charli D’Amelio to name a specialized cold brew drink after her. “The Charli,” a cold brew with 3 shots of caramel flavoring and whole milk, has blown up on social media and has likely brought more people into Dunkin just to try the new beverage—not to mention this ad is targeted to influence a platform that is highly popular among kids, which could lead to the consumption of coffee in younger children…but we’ll leave the discussion of business ethics and morals to someone else.
In the end, there is a really unique and interesting history of this energizing drink as a cultural product in America. We have made coffee a staple in American culture over a brief course of a couple hundred years and to this day, things still continue to change to establish coffee as the most popular drink in the United States.
Works Cited
Coffee, 1400-1800. https://humwp.ucsc.edu/cwh/brooks/coffee-site/1800-present.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2020.
“Coffee History: Coffee in the Wild Wild West.” Waka Coffee, https://www.wakacoffee.com/blogs/coffeelifeblog/cowboy-coffee-in-the-wild-wild-west. Accessed 18 Sept. 2020.
Coffee Statistics. https://www.e-importz.com/coffee-statistics.php. Accessed 17 Sept. 2020.
“History of Coffee | The History Kitchen.” PBS Food, 8 Apr. 2013, https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-coffee/.
History of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. – FundingUniverse. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/peet-s-coffee-tea-inc-history/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2020.
“If War Is Hell, Then Coffee Has Offered U.S. Soldiers Some Salvation.” NPR.Org, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/25/485227943/if-war-is-hell-then-coffee-has-offered-u-s-soldiers-some-salvation. Accessed 18 Sept. 2020.
Wulff, Alexia. “A Brief History Of American Coffee Culture.” Culture Trip, https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/a-brief-history-of-american-coffee-culture/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2020.
