Coffee culture: Whats brewing?

A look at the coffee culture steaming up the urban centres of Pakistan.

LAHORE:

Caffeine is to a writer what a beautiful woman is to a painter; it literally jumpstarts one’s creativity. This may be the reason that many writers have penned some of their best creations in java joints around the world. At a quiet coffee shop, writers can disappear into their own worlds, overhear engaging conversations that can get their creative juices flowing and most of all they can write without being interrupted for hours. Compare that to spending long dreary hours studying or working in an inspiration-less library — coffee shops win hands down. While writers may have started the trend of frequenting coffee shops, it was quickly picked up by college students who also needed time away from noisy dorms to study. Now this culture of spending quality ‘me time’ in a coffee shop has spread like wildfire internationally. However, while many coffee shops and international chains have opened up their doors in Pakistan, the question remains as to whether Pakistanis have figured out the real purpose of a coffee shop?

Whether you want to blame the lack of entertainment options available in the country, or the nationwide passion of consuming large amounts of food, coffee shops are merely treated as a place to eat food or hang out with friends and family. Any person hunched over work or typing away on their laptop at a coffee shop is treated like a social pariah by those around.

Coffee culture in Pakistan

Coffee house culture is relatively new in Pakistan and while in Karachi, coffee shops have been popular even before the millennium, it was local coffee shop Espresso that really made coffee culture come to the forefront and now, there is a coffee shop in practically every lane of Zamzama. But none of them have progressed beyond the “hanging out” phase.

In Lahore, it started with Coffee, Tea and Company and as the culture progressed, a franchise of Gloria Jean’s opened up in Lahore and then overnight coffee shops started cropping up on almost every corner.

Books stores and coffee houses

Internationally, not every coffee shop has a bookstore inside it but almost every leading bookstore will have a barista at least. Moreover, chains like Borders and Barnes and Nobles have a branch of Starbucks Coffee Company or Costa Coffee in their book stores.

Although in Pakistan we don’t find libraries in coffee shops, a bookshelf that has books for sale in a coffee shop is quickly emerging. Gloria Jean’s in Lahore has now put up a shelf through which people can sift through books and magazines they would like to purchase.

Readings, one of the leading bookstores of Lahore, has an extension that leads to a small cafe. The Hot Spot, which is more of an ice cream joint but also offers coffee, has a novelty bookstore called The Last Word. The latest sensation in Lahore is The Cafe Upstairs and they too have franchised a corner of their space to The Last Word.

Islamabad is another story all together. The capital city has a different dynamic in the coffee shops because of all the diplomats residing in the city. Mocca Coffee is one of the leading coffee shops in Islamabad, it does not house a library within its premises but more often than not you can find people sitting, enjoying their coffee, catching up on their reading or browsing through the newspaper. It is also not uncommon to walk to the upper level of Gloria Jean’s in Kohsar market and find high school students finishing up their homework or college students huddled in some corner prepping for the GRE.

While Lahore and Karachi’s love for coffee houses is appreciated and their starkly different usage for such places understood, we still hope that coffee houses also develop certain quieter spaces for those writers, students or introverts who like to get away from their homes every now and then, just to have a coffee, read a book, without the usual hustle bustle or the judgemental looks.

With additional reporting by Saba Khalid

Karachi coffee joints

•  Butlers Chocolates Cafe —Bring the entire khandaan

•  Espresso — Used to be athe place to be seen, now not so much

•  Xander’s — Where lawn, diamonds and kitty party aunties collide

•  Ciao — Affordable coffee, no awkward run-ins with friends and your work actually gets done

Cafe-hopping centres
New York: New York City and San Francisco make it to the list of Top 10 cities with great coffee cultures. Some of the coffee places in these cities are bars: stools up against a counter, great for espresso lovers who just want a quick shot before they move on.

Vienna: The Viennese coffee plays an important role shaping Viennese culture. The social practices, the rituals, the elegance create the very specific atmosphere of the Viennese cafe. Typical coffee houses in Vienna have a wide variety of coffee drinks, international newspapers and pastry creations.

Amsterdam: The city is well-known for its cafes and coffee shops. However, more than coffee, these cafes are more popular for smoking marijuana, which is legally accepted.

Rome: As befitting the land of espresso, Italians take their coffee seriously. Famous throughout Rome, Caffe Sant Eustachio is a favourite for coffee snobs.

SOURCE: travelandleisure.com, coffeeshopsamsterdam.com

Coffee and Cigarettes

Set in Paris in the 1920s, the characters in the film discuss everything from caffeine popsicles to the possibility of using nicotine as an insecticide.

“FRIENDS” — Central Perk

All six characters of this popular 90s TV show come together every day to discuss the minutiae of their lives at a coffee shop called Central Perk.

Landon Pigg — “Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop”

This mellow tune makes for perfect coffee house listening. It tells of a quaint love story that takes place in a coffee shop. 

History of coffee

The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the 15^th century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia. From Mocha, Yemen, coffee spread to Egypt and North Africa and by the 16^th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey. Coffee drinking spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and coffee plants were transported by the Dutch to the East Indies and to America.

The first record of coffee growing in the subcontinent is following the introduction of coffee beans from Yemen by Sufi legend Baba Budan to the hills of Chikmagalur in 1670. Since then coffee beans have been planted extensively all over the subcontinent.

SOURCE: chickmagalur.nic.in, Coffee: A Dark History.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2012.