Monday, October 01, 2007

Crucial issue of the morning

Go see Haney now to get in on the "best iced coffee" discussion.

New Orleans, as many of you know, is one of the great coffee towns in America. The Louisiana State Museum maintains an exhibit in the Cabildo Armory that treats the history of the coffee trade at the port of New Orleans and its lasting cultural impact. A few highlights:

Today, New Orleans is the number one coffee port in the country. Around 241,000 tons of green coffee or 27.8 percent of the coffee that entered the United States in 1995 came into New Orleans. Beans are shipped here in large containers from thirty-one coffee-producing countries. This coffee is shipped out to large bulk roasters and smaller specialty roasters around the world.


In the 1920s the coffee break, as we know it, had not yet become a part of the daily ritual of American workers. In New Orleans, however, where business was said to have taken a secondary role to pleasure, the mid-morning break began to take form. In 1928 Lyle Saxon wrote in Fabulous New Orleans:

It is no unusual thing for a business man to say casually: "Well, let's go and get a cup of coffee," as a visitor in his office is making ready to depart. It is a little thing perhaps, this drinking of coffee at odd times, but it is very characteristic of the city itself. Men in New Orleans give more thought to the business of living than men in other American cities. . . . I have heard Northern business men complain bitterly about these little interruptions for coffee or what-not.


We may never know if the coffee break was actually invented here in New Orleans, but the tradition remains popular. In recent years, a new breed of coffeehouse, the gourmet shop, has gained popularity in the New Orleans region in keeping with a national trend. With premium blends of coffee from around the world, these establishments are breathing life into a coffee industry that was suffering from high prices and competition from soft drinks and flavored waters. Workers in New Orleans, now more than ever, enjoy their sacred coffee break ritual to its fullest.


The highlight indicates the sentence that brings the largest smile to my face. Also, I should point out that the "Coffee houses" of the day more often than not traded in stronger drink than just coffee. The New Orleans "coffee house" of the 19th and early 20th century was often interchangeable with the saloon.

And there were quite more than a few of them as this FrenchQuarter.com article indicates.

By the 19th century, New Orleans was already one of the world’s busiest ports and, thanks to its proximity to Latin America, coffee was one of its leading imports. Naturally, coffeehouses sprang up around city. In fact, one city directory from the 1850s lists more than 500 coffeehouses in the rapidly growing port town.


Today, there aren't exactly 500 coffee houses in town but there is still quite a good number from a surprising variety of operators. So, again, go visit Haney and give some love to your favorite.

And, yes, the evil empire does have a foothold here... but I can't imagine patronizing them except in the most dire of emergencies.

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