WordSmith: The arty-culture and craic of coffee
Given last week’s column began with coffee, I thought I’d devote this week’s to it. I take my coffee straight up black, no sugar. I particularly welcome the jolt it gives in the morning, a far stronger kick than its hot-beverage-brethren: tea.
The other day I treated myself to a takeaway, a ‘short black, medium roast’ which is marketing speak for a ‘small coffee'.
“How much did that cost yer?” asked a friend. “Three euro, sixty,” I replied. He looked aghast, “I can get a can of Guinness for that price, and there’d be far more craic in it than that!”
He got me thinking about the black stuff (coffee, not Guinness). It was Saturday afternoon and I took off for a walk around town, with coffee on my mind. I counted 12 coffee-outlets, (inclusive of retail outlets, but not including mobile pop-up vans, which are proliferating). It’s safe to say coffee culture is thriving in Cavan Town.
Back in the day, we had a lonely jar of Maxwell House at the back of the press, taken out once a year for the annual Irish coffee on Christmas Day. Now, that’s coffee with a good bit of craic in it; as the many Irish coffee jokes attest to, “I like a man how I like my coffee: hot, strong, and Irish!”
Safe to say, the lone jar of coffee at the back of the press days are long behind us.
Recently, I was chatting to a friend over coffee, she told me she was due to attend Dublin- Barista-School to embark upon a barista course. Had I had this conversation back in my student days, I’d have assumed she harboured lofty law ambitions as a barrister being called to the bar. But no, frothy-coffee for the bar; there’s a school for that, now. And when I reflect on it, I realise that, were I graduating today and setting off on my travels, then a barista qualification would probably be more useful to me than my Art degree. The global growth of coffee-culture; and the relatively transient nature of the coffee-shop employee, means there’s always work for a skilled barista anywhere in the world.
And it is a skill; look at the art the barista creates on top of a milk-based-coffee beverage. Using milk as their medium, and the most deft of hand movements, the barista creates beautiful art on top of your coffee, it often looks too exquisite to be destroyed by drinking.
The other day I watched as a barista created a beautiful leaf atop a latte. “Who teaches you to do the designs?” I asked. Completing her creation and giving an appreciative nod to her fellow barista, “we teach each other,” she said. Intrigued, I asked, “So there’s no formal latte art training?”
Her head swivelled, “no, some of us freestyle new designs depending on the time of year, like pumpkins for Halloween, santy for Christmas and all that.”
I wandered away wondering if there were some kind of latte art Olympics – a quick Google search informed me of THE WORLD LATTE ART CHAMPIONSHIPS, 'highlighting artistic expression in a competition platform that challenges the barista in an on-demand performance.' It’s a three day competition, which this year took place in Copenhagen, with Yi-Chen-Xi of Taiwan lifting the frothy crown. Ireland did compete, but sadly didn’t place. There’s always next year; and judging by the latte-art I see being created in Cavan, we could be in with a shout.
So, we now know there’s serious competition in coffee; but as that fella sez, “Is there any craic in it?” Well, as I write this in a coffee-shop, I’m aware of the raucous peals of laughter ricocheting about the place, it’s like a caffeine fuelled fun-house.
Is the coffee shop the new pub? I don’t know, but we do know that nationally pubs are in decline, while the number of coffee shops are on the rise. And I suppose, unlike the pub, in our world of remote working, the coffee shop is a hub for: meetings, greetings, and dealings – I’d say many a business deal is brokered in the coffee-shop.
A cursory glance around Cavan Town and you will see many of its busy populace rushing around with a takeaway coffee in hand. In fact, for many, the morning sanity check has now become: keys, wallet, phone, and – COFFEE!
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY: