In the United States and Canada, people are drinking less and less coffee and the large companies that produce the major brands of coffee are very unhappy about that. Primarily because of reasons associated with health, coffee consumption in North America has dropped nearly half, from 3.1 cups per day per adult in 1962 to 1.65 cups per day in 1999 and retail coffee sales, of about $6.7 billion annually have not risen in nearly six years.

Surprisingly, not everyone in the American coffee industry is depressed because of this. In fact, even though Americans seem to have put an end to their caffeine craze, one part of the industry is dancing for joy. Simply stated, even though they may be drinking less, Americans and Canadians are more and more insistent that the coffee they do drink be of the highest possible quality. Because of this, gourmet coffee is making it big in North America. In fact, gourmet coffee is making it so big in America that it has already begun to make an appearance in England, Greece, Israel and Egypt.

The concept of gourmet coffee did not start in America. Historically, the notion finds its roots in the European countries of England, Italy, Belgium and Holland where, partly as a reaction to the control of the industry by several major companies, small coffee importers began scouring through the trade for geographical locations that export exotic coffees. Looking for the ultimate coffee taste, several of these companies, each of which roasted their own coffee beans, restricted themselves to sales from their shops or by mail-order. Others decided that it might be profitable to open small coffee bars where people could sample a cup of this or a cup of that whenever they liked. Such bars may have had a few biscuit containers on the counter, but the reason people were attracted to them was primarily the coffee.

Nor is gourmet coffee a new concept. Coffee specialty shops such as "Hobbs and Company" and "H.R. Higgins, Coffee Man" in London have been roasting coffee from Kenya, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Mexico since 1855 and "Bar Zucca" and "Peck" both in Milan, have been importing coffee from Tanzania Guatemala and Kenya since 1894. What is new is that as recently as fifteen years ago espresso coffee was still considered an exotic beverage in America and was reserved mostly for bohemian hideaways in Greenwich Village, Montreal and San Francisco and a handful of Italian restaurants scattered around the continent. Once espresso had gained a foothold, however, there was no stopping North Americans, and for a large number of people the weak, watery, bitter, muddy looking coffee that they were receiving in restaurants and buying in their supermarkets was no longer adequate.

From Milan to San Francisco, these small companies had one thing in common - an utmost reverence for the coffee bean, and they all actively strived to obtain, roast and serve the best coffee that money could buy. Especially in America, where the gourmet coffee market is now growing at about 15% annually and now accounts for over $1.2 billion dollars per year in sales, the major coffee companies have tried to compete with the small roasters. They have not succeeded, because even though they have given some of their coffees names such as "Gourmet Supreme", "French Roast" and "100% Columbian Coffee", they continued in their practice of importing lower quality, lower priced beans. Americans may be naive but they are not stupid and although most people understand little about the differences in quality between Robusta and Arabica coffees, they quickly learned that not all coffee that comes from Brazil or Columbia is good and that some of the very best coffees come from places like Jamaica, Mysore and Tanzania, places they rarely read about in their newspapers.

The Coffee City Par Excellence

No city better demonstrates the success of gourmet coffee than Seattle Washington, where coffee carts can be found on nearly every corner and some business and shopping areas boast more than one coffee shop per street. Even drive-in banks, dentist's offices and dry cleaners offer free cups of gourmet coffee to their customers. These are no ordinary coffee shops, for no matter how tiny they may be, each offers their own unique coffees, and these range from hot to cold, from the frappe to the single, double or triple espresso, and come in glasses and mugs that may be tall, short, fat, thin, round, square, hexagonal or oval. The point is, however, that with or without milk, cream, cinnamon, allspice, rum or Irish whiskey, people are buying and buying.

The Seattle coffee scene started about fifteen years ago when large numbers of San Franciscans moved to that city. Finding none of the good coffee they knew from the coffee-houses of Berkeley, many brought their own coffee with them. Some even opened coffee shops and bars and several of those (Starbucks, Caravali, Millstone, SBC, Torrefazione Italia and Veneto Beans are now among the leaders in today's nationwide gourmet coffee market.

"Caravali", for example, is a major specialty coffee roaster. Their four story building has a simple storefront in which several of their coffee products and a few burlap bags of Hawaiian Kona and other origin beans are displayed. The company distributes whole beans to department stores, coffee shops and restaurants. They also sell directly to the public and by mail order. As to the many shops in the city, some offer as many as thirty types of regular coffee, seven decafs, and twelve flavored varieties. (Nationwide, decaffeinated and flavored varieties account for about 18% of gourmet sales). One company, "Pot O'Gold", is specifically designed to sell to office workers who have become so demanding in their search for high quality coffee that they bring the same coffee into their offices as they drink at home.

Some of the specialty coffee houses have gone national. Starbucks, for example, now has more than six hundred stores and boasts $180 million in annual revenues. And, as if to prove that the gourmet coffee phenomenon is not limited to the West Coast of the United States and Canada, "Gloria Jean's Coffee Bean", which has its headquarters in Buffalo Grove, Illinois already has 400 stores in 115 cities and plans on opening 60 more by the end of 1999. Other gourmet coffee houses that have gone national are Florida's "Barnie's Coffee and Tea Company" and Michigan's "Coffee Beanery Ltd

It takes more than the mere love of good coffee to explain the phenomenon. One factor is the relatively new North American passion for sobriety. Upwardly mobile Americans may be drinking a bit more wine these days but they drinking far less whiskey and getting drunk and using drugs far less often. In cities such as Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta gourmet coffee shops have become late-night hangouts for yuppies and the middle-aged alike.

Another factor relates to prices which, either at coffee carts or in coffee bars are surprisingly reasonable. "Starbucks" charges $1.50 for espresso with steamed milk and a touch of froth; for $1.25 you get either a double espresso or a large decaffinated coffee at "SBC Coffee"; and Gloria Jean's mocha with whipped cream goes for a reasonable $1.90. One may not be able to buy a new car, but a cup of coffee is affordable even in difficult economic times. A third factor is that gourmet coffee offers an air of romance not usually associated with the cup of coffee most people drink. After all, an Italian style coffee bar featuring biscotti in glass jars, or a Caribbean coffee stand featuring live raggae music is not just selling a cup of coffee ... it is providing an experience.

© Daniel Rogov