War on Coffee? Stay Tuned.

Ron Fletcher, a teacher and an education columnist for the Boston Globe, believes that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds who buy lattes and iced coffees are not really doing so of their free will: rather, they're being manipulated (probably by the evil addiction-peddling forces of capitalism, though he doesn't say). Think that's annoying? Hold on to your venti cappuccino: turns out that coffee is the new tobacco.

In some circles, fancy coffee drinks seem to promise the sophistication that cigarettes once dangled before teens. As educators we should try to help our students see through such manipulation.

Comments

[Mike]

Unfortunately, I think we all knew it was only a matter of time before the nanny state took aim at Big Caffeine.

[Martin Owens]

I rarely go into a Starbucks, because I can't help but think it's complete bullshit to get stuck six dollars for a cup of coffee. A big cup I grant you, and the honey and cream and goodies are all very well, but it's pretty obvious the coffee isn't what you're buying.

You're buying the atmosphere, the satisfaction of belonging to this sophisticated inner circle of people who can tell Jamaica Blue Mountain from Sumatra Fair Trade roast by smell... of course that's bullshit, too.

But kids are desperate to belong, to get status, all that jazz. It sounds worldly and grown up, when you're 15, to say "venti" instead of "big cup of insanely overpriced joe". And what the hell, it beats having them hanging out on the street corner...

The people I worry about are the thirty and forty year olds who fall for this junk. Like the columnists at the GLOBE, and the politicians who listen to them.

[Timothy]

To be fair, only the froo froo drinks at Starbucks cost an arm and a leg. Regular old coffee can be had for a couple of bucks.

[Rogier]

Martin:

I don't think I've ever seen a cup of Starbucks java for six dollars. But give it time...

I believe there's NOTHING, ZERO wrong with 'buying the atmosphere.' That's what retail and hospitality establishments are all ABOUT, for the most part. A meal cooked by Daniel Boulud but served in a McDonald's ambience doesn't cut it. McDonald's-quality food in a chi-chi eatery doesn't work either.

Likewise, when I buy a new iPod, I don't just get an MP3 player. I get an EXPERIENCE, one that starts the moment I walk into an Apple store, and continues when I get home and unwrap my purchase - all the way to when the thing may be nearing the end of its useful life and I have to contact Apple's customer service to get the screen or the battery replaced. It's all those things rolled into one and executed in a delicate dance -- again, not just the utilitarian product, but the graphic design, the packaging, the ads, how the store clerks act and what they wear, how the stores are lit, what telephone reps say when they answer your call and how they say it, the company's reputation as an innovator and a corporate citizen, and so on.

If that's too hoity-toity for you, consider that I'm not talking about Apple per se -- EVERY store and brand has its (ahem) Gestalt, including, of course, mass-market retailers such as Target and T.J. Maxx.

You ALWAYS buy the experience, from the delightful stylings at Barney's which make you feel posher than you are and more pampered than you deserve to be, to the equally delightful lack of fuss and the barebones persona of WalMart, where everything is presented in such a way as to make you believe you're entirely surrounded by the discounts and price-cuts and bargains that efficient trim-the-fat WalMart buyers have snagged on your behalf.

Not only is there nothing wrong with any of that, I admire the marketing savvy that goes into creating those brand persona. To me and a billion others, one of the great pleasures of the post-agricultural society is being able to select from a plethora of products that, collectively, both create and reflect one's image -- and one's identity. Call me shallow, but I've covered business and marketing long enough to know that that's how it works, and I find satisfaction both in observing the process and in taking part in it.

[Michael Chaney]

Actually, this is good. Recent studies have shown that the coffee being sold on the streets today is 2-3 times more potent than the stuff our parents were drinking back in the 60's. Not only that, it's a gateway drink. People who drink fancy coffees are more likely to move on to harder drinks such as herbal teas or Perrier.

So, yes, it would be great for the nanny state to step in and steer these innocent children in the right direction. Of course, if they want to get an abortion, they're adults who know how to make their own decisions...

[Frank]

So coffee is the new tobacco..... Do we get tobacco back now?

"venti cappuccino" would be a 20oz cappuccino (4 to 5 espresso shots and 16oz of milk). I'm in Vienna at the moment and the size of a cappuccino varies between 4oz to 6oz. I do not believe it would be possible to drink 20oz at a sitting and not suffer hilarious repercussions.

As a side note, in Vienna, a cappuccino is different than an Italian cappuccino in that it comes "mit schlag" (whipped cream) rather than foamed milk. The Italian cappuccino is referred to as a "Melange", not that I could drink 20oz of that either.

[Mike]

Frank - At least at Starbucks, the venti cap only has 2 shots of espresso unless you ask for more. For fancy drinks, it's much better to go grande, which also has 2 shots of espresso, but 4 oz. less steamed milk.

However, 2 shots may still be too much, as Michael Chaney pointed out. We're now dealing with caffeine 2.0.