Perky

How many coffee's, made by others, do you have on average on a daily basis?

What did you drink before coffee became so easily available on the High Street?

It is difficult now to think back to a time when there was any other dominant beverage to be had almost at will.

Of course there are those drinks which are an integral part of a nation's identity and will always remain so but coffee has become the drink of the world and in a relatively short period of time.

My own introduction to the ground bean was through the rather frightening operation, on a weekend only, of the family percolator.

Ground coffee was an expensive luxury in the 1970's having not yet reached the supermarket shelves in any volume or choice. It was quite a performance to assemble the inner workings of the percolator and carefully measure and place in the grounds before replacing the perforated cover and the stainless steel lid with the see through bubble on the top.

After plugging it in we would wait excitedly for the first indications of activity. Within a few minutes the process of circulating the boiling infused water filled the kitchen with loud noises from asthmatic wheezing to a gradually reducing burping sound to signify that the brew was just about ready.

To a young palate the coffee was horrible. It was bitter, stewed and thick and this was even after a good diluting with milk and a lot of sugar.

It appears that  the image of coffee in the 70's decade. was thus joyless, bland,flavourless and better quickly drunk or poured into the nearest sink, available plant pot or receptacle.

There were a few importers and merchants who championed coffee, not the mundane type but real coffee.

This involved them travelling globally to source the best quality beans be they from South America or Africa. They would then be imported and ground on the premises before being branded and distributed. This involved capital investment and physical effort but only represented half of the activity required to bring coffee to the mass market.

The general public, as potential consumers, still had to be convinced that a more expensive coffee was worth the price differential by which it could be purchased in a can from the corner shop or growing chains of supermarkets.

This was the situation when in the late 1970's three 28 year olds from Seattle, USA decided to become coffee bean grinders and sellers.

This original founding team of Starbucks had shown an interest in the coffee business after finding that to get a decent brew they had to travel some distances from their home city. As part of their due diligence the trio sought the expertise of perhaps, at that time, the most influential coffee impresario, Alfred Peet who had made a fortune in San Francisco.

It was the generosity of Peet that saw the Starbucks start-up being allowed to copy his already proven shop layout back in Seattle and share existing suppliers.

Surprisingly the first Starbucks was not a coffee shop but just a place to buy ground coffee for home use.

The business was slow to develop but those visiting the shop were seduced by the aroma of freshly ground coffee and given small tasters of the different bean brews.

The ethos of the business was to educate the public in the idea of good coffee.

The science is interesting. A coffee blend has 1200 compounds compared to, for example 250 in red wine and 350 in white wine. The brewing process is complex bringing together the anti-oxidants and natural chemicals and in each mouthful the taste bud sensations are different.

Starbucks did eventually open up their first coffee shop in 1982/83 but not before the ground work had been done to make coffee a part of everyone's daily routine. (Other coffee shop chains are of course available)

I have, now as an adult, my own percolator and continue the family custom of firing it up on a weekend, I am still petrified by the whole process and I must admit that the coffee resulting is just not as nice as from a cafetiere or from my on local coffee shop.