Coffee is more than just a drink; there is much more value behind it.
I grew up accustomed to drinking tea, and it was not until the early autumn of 2008 that I began to learn to appreciate coffee.
Coffee shops stand on every street corner in Taiwan, China, and their menus list long strings of bean names, with thriving varieties covering every kind of flavor. But as a fairly ordinary consumer not well versed in coffee science, I know only a little: that washed and natural processing each have their strengths, that dark, medium and light roasts produce differences in strength and mildness, and that books explain the relationship between temperature and the release of fruit acidity. Beyond that, I simply taste at random and then come to understand my own palate, which always favors a pure, rich texture, cannot enjoy the bright stimulation of bursting fruit acidity, and declines the complexity of added sugar and milk.
Beyond taste, I am even more particular. I am particular about the role coffee beans play in the global structure: are they carrying destruction or exploitation that cannot be seen right now? I am also particular about the focus of care reproduced by the coffee cultural landscape.
Good to drink, not necessarily moving: another kind of value choice
In an era when globalization and localization stitch together (or attack?) each other, coffee is not merely the petit-bourgeois pleasure of "no matter how busy you are, I will still drink a cup with you," and it does not only represent multinational brands, equipment, technology and taste. It is also a linked reminder of ecological conditions, the balance of smallholders' livelihoods, and whether the global agribusiness structure is fair[1]. Often, in the faint recesses of information, sweat and blood flow in many places, catastrophe spreads silently, and it takes another kind of consumer power, different from the logic of free capital competition, to develop it.
The image below shows several kinds of beans I recently bought from a small chain store near my residence in Europe. After all, I drink only a small cup a day and use only simple home hand grinders, thin-spout kettles and other pour-over equipment, so I can slowly choose and search for my favorite-tasting beans, buying in small quantities and trying them one by one, all the more curious about the certification marks on the packaging.
Only later did I learn that in sixteenth-century Europe, coffee, a drink already popular in the Islamic world, finally appeared in an official report thanks to Cazzoni, ambassador of the Republic of Venice to Istanbul. Another more influential ambassador, Morosini, once wrote a report to the senate: "It is a black liquid extracted from the seeds of the coffee tree after steeping and boiling in hot water; residents claim that drinking it gives vigor, makes one less prone to drowsiness, and helps health..." Afterward, the ambassador brought coffee back from Turkey, entertained upper-class figures with it, and it was greatly praised and spread widely, making seventeenth-century Venice the early coffee capital of Italy[11].
It is not surprising to be able to drink a cup of coffee memorable enough in the historic coffee capital of Europe; what is surprising is that afterward I never again encountered that taste. Every subsequent cup of Espresso lost the space-time environment and emotional context of that moment, and the amazement was hard to find again.
Perhaps I have simply forgotten the true taste of that cup of Espresso, and what I remember is a flavored memory mixed with emotion. Thus coffee is not only coffee, and from then on it becomes a medium for dialogue with memory.
Nor are all memories sweet, mellow and pure. In the process of trying new beans and pursuing memory, before and after every time I grind a cup of coffee for myself, the particularity remains, bitterness and acidity pile up, and the strength or mildness is known only to oneself. It is not only coffee; it is like life.
Early in the morning as usual, I pour and grind new beans, seeking fragrance spreading.
Tasting shallow and deep, love and hate should have no model.
Fine water poured back and forth, filtering down the idle sorrow that occupies it.
The remaining grounds are dark, bitterness and acidity briefly mingle, and only after strength is known does one know mildness.
2013.05.10
———-
[1]: See this book,
[2]: Thanks to the seniors who once guided me in ideas such as "impressive and wonderful are different" and "good-looking and moving are different," from which I benefited greatly.
[3]: The "World Heritage" program promoted by UNESCO since 1972 selects each year international-level heritage with the most outstanding universal value, integrity and (or) authenticity, and with an appropriate management system. As of May 2013, there were 962 World Heritage sites in total, namely 745 cultural heritage sites, 188 natural heritage sites and 29 mixed heritage sites with both cultural and natural value, distributed among 157 of the 190 states parties.
[4]: For details, see the introduction to cultural landscapes on the UNESCO "World Heritage" website:http://whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape#1
[5]: Please see the Chinese version of
[6]: Same source as above, page 116: Cultural landscapes can be divided into three categories, namely:
"(i) clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by man: including garden and park landscapes established for aesthetic reasons, often (but not always) accompanied by religious or other monumental buildings and overall planning.
(ii) organically evolved landscape: arising from social, economic, administrative and (or) religious needs, and developing into today's form in response to the natural environment in which it is located, with the form and constituent features of the landscape reflecting the evolution process of that landscape. This kind of landscape can be further divided into two subcategories:
a) fossil landscape: refers to a landscape that in some past period suddenly or after a period of time reached the end point of its evolution. However, the features that can identify the landscape may still be seen in tangible form.
b) continuing landscape: refers to a landscape that in today's society still retains an active social role and is closely related to traditional ways of life, and whose evolution process is still continuing. At the same time, it displays important tangible evidence of the landscape's evolution over time.
(iii) associative cultural landscape: this type of landscape is inscribed on the World Heritage List on the basis of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural elements of the landscape, rather than tangible cultural evidence, and these beauties and virtues may be inconspicuous or even invisible."
[7]: In Taiwan, China's
[8]: For the 39 cultural landscapes, see the Bureau of Cultural Heritage webpage: http://www.boch.gov.tw/boch/frontsite/cultureassets/caseHeritageAction.do?method=doFindAllCaseHeritage&menuId=302&siteId=101&assetsClassifyIds=3.1
[9]: Bureau of Cultural Heritage data "Jihalae Cultural Landscape of Fengnan Village, Fuli Township, Hualien County":http://www.boch.gov.tw/boch/frontsite/cultureassets/caseBasicInfoAction.do?method=doViewCaseBasicInfo&iscancel=true&caseId=UD10106000010&version=1&assetsClassifyId=3.1&menuId=302
[10]: For agricultural issues based on smallholders as the foundation of sustainable development, please refer to the "Taiwan Rural Front" website:http://www.taiwanruralfront.org/
[11]: From