Need Another Reason to Drink Coffee at a Cafe? Here are Several.

Glorious coffee!

Coffee was initially produced in Ethiopia and?"later introduced to Europe through the Ottoman Empire." ?

This is how coffee made its way to Venice, Italy. In Venice, many Christians regarded coffee as?"sinful due to its association with the Islamic religion." ?When some requested Pope Clement VIII to denounce it, he asked to take a sip.? Following a taste, the Pope said,?

"This Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it." ?

With that, the coffee culture exploded in Italy.

Cafes

Because coffee is best when hot, cafes opened, quickly becoming places to share ideas and socialize. Cafes were gathering places for people regardless of political beliefs, religion and social status.??

France adopted the cafe. There, cafes were places for resistance and revolution for "artistic and political rabble-rousers of the time" at notorious cafes such as the Cafe Procope. ?Cafe culture flourished, and cafes were considered sacred places to create art and share ideas, especially during the Enlightenment.

Gentrification

City planners?used cafes to gentrify areas where pockets of poverty were forming . This action brought a mix of diverse social classes into the areas, which was a good thing. Absent social support, however, the houseless living in the area were often displaced and left to find other areas to live and rest.

England Didn't Get it

Cafes sprouted up in England and became places to?discuss employment, investments and commerce opportunities. Members of the upper class appreciated the coffee and the cafes but did not appreciate their democratic nature . I mean, they would let just about anyone in!?Several members of England's upper class sought to buy three hours per day of exclusive access to cafes in London. The matter went to court, where the court ruled cafes were part of the free market and such exclusivity was not for sale.?

Dismayed but unrelenting, the members of London's upper class opened their own coffee house called Lloyd's Coffee House . That way, they could continue to do their business without the "riffraff." The commerce at Lloyd's Coffee House led to?the establishment of an insurance house, "Lloyd's of London and Lloyd's Register. " Lloyd's of London exists today, reporting a pre-tax profit of 2.3 Billion Pounds in 2021. Cafes in England exist but never flourish as they did in Europe. Alehouses overtook them in terms of volume of both location and fluids.

Today the authentic cafe is a democratic, inclusive meeting place for people of all social classes and religious and political affiliations to gather, socialize, share ideas, scheme and dream!?

Drive-throughs

The cafe is not only about coffee. The drive-through has altered the cafe, attempting to reduce it to be about the coffee alone. With the drive-through, we stop stopping to appreciate precious moments - as we rush from place to place. The act of drinking coffee, the keystone of which was relational, becomes about distributing our dose as we drive, in isolation, in our separate iron fortresses.?

Pandemic

Of course, the pandemic altered the cafe, at least temporarily. I remember when cafes re-opened for in-person sitting. I took my laptop to work from a cafe and be around people again.

There's no energy quite like that of a cafe.?

Independent Roasters

While travelling to Vancouver recently, the variety of cafe houses struck me, including thriving independent roasters. Edmonton's smaller population makes it more difficult for independent roasters to make a go of it. From that moment, I decided to seek out independent roasters and visit each one.?Explore Edmonton's ?article on?Edmonton's best indie coffee roasters? was beneficial.

I love the uniqueness of these independent roasters' form and atmosphere and the variety of customers - including riffraff like me.

Get Back to Ideas, Creativity and Relationships

So, I encourage you to step inside an authentic cafe when you get the chance. Invite people, invite people you don't always see. Reacquaint yourself with the connection and relational aspect of the cafe. Twitter is about sharing positions - causing us to think we are sharing ideas. Blasting positions from our phones in search of likes is isolating and polarizing.?

The cafe is where true idea-sharing and creation occur - and, of that, we need more.

Respectfully yours,

Sam Kemble

Executive Operating Officer

Workforce Delivery Inc.

People Solutions Inc. - United Workforce Group