The Rise of the American Coffee Culture

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The last time I visited Zurich, friends told me: "Don't go to Starbucks. They are trying to kill the local coffee shops."

Now, small mom and pop shops have all my sympathies. Moreover, Zurich is located little more than a few hundred miles north of Italy, so there was no danger of getting a lousy cappuccino or espresso. I heeded my friends' advice and had my cappuccinos in nice little cafes. Until I wanted a cappuccino to-go to sit down at the Limmat and let my feet dangle in the water. After a fruitless attempt at convincing two waiters in two separate restaurants to get me a cappuccino in a paper cup, I gave up, headed over for the next Starbucks, and got my "cap to-go".

A cappuccino is a cappuccino, right? Well, not quite, in the U.S. it comes at least in two variants: to-go and for-here. This is all about convenience, and it hurts my brain trying to understand why those two waiters wouldn't get me a cappuccino to-go.

Living in California, I usually go to a Peet's Coffee shop, which I prefer over Starbucks. Like at Starbucks, you can order the size of your cappuccino, small, medium, or large. You can also say how many shots of espresso you want in your cappuccino, determining how much espresso and how much milk makes it into your drink.

Today, however, I went to a Starbucks because there was no Peet's Coffee nearby. The clerk asked me whether I wanted my cappuccino wet or dry. Seeing my confused stare, he explained to me that wet means more milk and less foam, and dry means less milk and more foam. Since I usually ask for less milk and more foam, I was happy to have a term for it now, and ordered a dry cappuccino.

So here you have it, the product configuration space for a cappuccino:

  • Small, medium, or large, to determine the overall size of your drink
  • Number of espresso shots to determine the amount of espresso in your drink
  • Wet or dry to determine the percentage distribution of milk and foam in your cappuccino
  • To-go or for-here to determine the cup you get your cappuccino in

But to-go or not to-go is not the real question here. Why did it take a U.S. company to figure out these product options? Or at least to industrialize them? After all, cappuccino and related drinks were not invented here, and until recently were never heard of in what's supposed to be god's country.

Well, the obvious reason is that in Italy or Switzerland, the form a cappuccino takes is determined by the host or chef or whoever makes the cappuccino. The advantage of this is that the maker of your cappuccino typically takes some pride in getting it right. Only, it is right the way its maker wants it, not the way you may want it.

So it took the pragmatism of a U.S. company and its relentless focus on its customers to determine all that's possible with a cappuccino. It also needed all those people who push the limits and themselves to beyond what is humanly bearable, that is, drown their espresso in milk. Fortunately, I don't have to order a large wet cappuccino with one shot of espresso. I don't even have to get upset about this. I can just ignore it.

And please, don't tell my Zurich friends that I had a cappuccino at their local Starbucks.

Postscriptum

Dominique remarked that I missed half of the product space. (Check out his website, in particular the winter pictures!) Regarding, cappucinos, you can also order

  • your milk non-fat or regular and
  • your coffee decaf or regular (caf?)
  • a topping of your choice, i.e. nothing, chocolate, or Sauerkraut

Thanks for pointing this out!

Post-Postscriptum

Just kidding about the Sauerkraut, even though I'm sure there is a shop out there that lets you top off your drink with whatever pickles or condiments you fancy.

Copyright (©) 2007 Dirk Riehle. Some rights reserved. (Creative Commons License BY-NC-SA.) Original Web Location: http://www.riehle.org