COFFEE AND ALL
Fifty degrees Celsius of water pours down my 16oz. Starbucks ceramic mug and I’m sitting like duck on what the heck am I to write on this sheet. And you’d probably be wondering why I’m on “instant”, and it’s my second by the way. It's for the reason that Starbucks coffee simply ain’t coffee. I know a local café that could whip up my favorite latte five times better than what this venti size of a corporate brewer can. And you were probably thinking I’d give you a turn around on this thing, well not today. I know places that can give you a jolt it’s like having your state-of-the-art bio-mechanics glued to your spine down to your nerves and electrifying your neurotransmitters it could light up the whole city. It might be overkill but that’s just how I feel about ‘gourmet coffee’.
I remember the time when I first came to the metro, that was around ten years ago, and the first thing that was in my mind was to get myself my first cup of Starbucks. While some typical male ego would probably think about where to party in the strange land, I on the other hand was thinking about getting my daily dose. I remember handling my first brewed coffee straight from the roaster, handling the beans with my bare hands. And by the moment it cooled off a bit, I ground it myself. Yes, we are coffee drinkers all right. Back in the past, my mother would down five cups a day. Take that away from her and she’d be sleeping like a baby. So it’s bad but hey, so is fast-food and everything else in excess. At some point, I had to tell her to keep it down cause it was compromising her health. Now she keeps it at two cups max.
Nowadays, you look around and all you get is the over-brewed concept of branding. It smells like burnt coffee, disgustingly nice. You pace one hundred steps from your nearest coffee shop and it’s another coffee shop. Corporate behemoths are brilliant in branding, it’s like when God created Adam and Eve, and their brand is your apple. And to top it all, the ambiance, the color, and their smile hit you as if you were in a war where only the other side’s got the high-tech weaponry. It actually reminds me of this Jim Carrey movie, Truman Show. In the Philippines, can it be any worse? It might just be. Come to think of it, we might just be in the same set-up. Like cows being herded to the butcher house. And where do we bleed? Through our pockets we do.
But then again we live in a capitalist world economy where every sweat is a buck, your blood is their funding and the market stall is passé, for branding is today’s hub. Be it your Wi-fi hub, gaming hub, socializing hub, check out hub, pick-up hub, magazine and newspaper hub etc… it doesn’t matter. Wherever it is, if the name is burned unto your brain, it will sell. The truth of the matter is that we’re just a bunch of prototypes and puppets running around on one psychological plain controlled by Herculean capitalists. Think of it like your monopoly game, and we’re the dust on the board, not even the pieces. And would I stop going around these shops? I don’t know. It depends on whose move it is next.
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