Coffee Time

It used to be the favorite part of my workday and now I do it almost without thinking and don’t really take a break. Coffee houses are great gathering spots in many places around the world. The insurance business was started in a famous London coffee house owned by Edward Lloyd in the 17th century where shippers sat around and talked about ways to share risk. It’s the fuel that makes late night studying for exams possible in college and probably keeps our trucking industry alert and functioning too. The magic of caffeine has influenced my whole life.

My mom always drank straight coffee, no milk no sugar, in a very traditional American drip coffee style. My grandpa drank it with evaporated milk. We were never allowed to have coffee as children except in an extremely milky fashion, but I don’t ever remember enjoying it. When I went to college (a military school) the freshmen cleaned and prepared the lounge where only seniors were allowed and this included making coffee. When I went to sea as a cadet this became one of the most important skills a neophyte could have. Ships also run on coffee because the job is 24/7 and being alert at all times of night and day, you don’t want to run aground or into other ships, is the name of the game.

When I started my career on oil rigs the work routine was much the same as ships except we worked straight 12 hour periods. Coffee time broke this up: traditionally at 9am and 3pm for the day crew and 9pm and 3am for the night crew. During this time we drink coffee in a style most familiar to the local crew, but we almost always had drip coffee makers available. We would sit and talk with the crew members who could be spared from the current operation, eat whatever snacks were available and relax. It was always a great time to talk about home or whoever else wasn’t sitting around and joining us.

In Portugal, my first overseas assignment, I was introduced to espresso and cappuccino made very similar to the land where the brewing technique was devised, Italy. Now everyone is familiar with the espresso machine because of Starbucks, but at the time it was new to me. In the morning I might drink a café con leche or café au lait which is extremely dark coffee but served with a lot of hot milk that you could portion yourself. Usually this is served in a cup about the size of a small sink and you eat a continental breakfast which is bread and butter and jam. Later I discovered a drink often served in a tall glass which is probably a lot like what we know as a latte, part espresso with a lot of steamed milk, which I often drank on the run with a nearly half fat steak sandwich which was delicious. In the evening we often finished a meal with an espresso.

In Brazil the locals drink espresso coffee, but with half the small cup filled with sugar. Since the roast bean they use is usually pretty bitter and because sugar cane is plentiful and cheap this became the preferred way to get that caffeine jolt. It might interest you to know that coffee developed in Africa and from there it spread to Europe where it became a popular beverage. When the French settled the New World they brought it to their colony of French Guiana where it was successfully grown and their market protected. In a strange manner of economic espionage the coffee plant was brought to Brazil, the current largest producer of the coffee bean, and at the same time the rubber tree, which was indigenous to Brazil, was stolen and taken to other parts of the world.

In northern European countries, coffee is also very popular (even in tea drinking England) and made much like we do here except they also use a stronger roast and drink it much stronger. It is not uncommon for travelers to bring the coffee they are most familiar with from their home country to make sure their day starts out right, no matter where they are.

In Greece the coffee houses I remember were very large and busy, but (at the time) no women were ever allowed. I don’t know why. I guess the men felt the need to talk freely. Here and in much of the Arab world there is a style of coffee preparation that leaves the grounds in the cup and you have to drink very carefully not to disturb them. This is thick stuff. If you want it sweetened you tell the waiter and it is prepared that way because it would take about a day for the grounds to settle if you put your own sugar in and stirred. I think we called this Turkish coffee although you wouldn’t dare use that term in Greece.

Coffee is a wonderful drink and the variations of preparation and taste are quite unique to a place and almost always worth trying the local brew. Of course, you can also intake caffeine through tea or soda, but that is another sea story to come.

(by Marc Adami, Guest Columnist)