Shooting Sacred Evangelical Cows: Coffee, Again

A few quick words of reply to the conversation that has surfaced over my post a few days about coffee.

There are nearly 15,000 Starbucks locations worldwide.  5000 Dunkin’ Donuts in the US.  This is to say nothing of Caribou Coffee, Tim Hortons, and local coffee houses.  Clearly, coffee is no longer a boutique product.  It’s a little different than rare Jefferson Airplane concert vinyl or imported caviar, for example.

What’s the point here?  Well, only that coffee has arrived.  It’s a mass-market product.  No, not everybody likes coffee.  Yes, there is a difference between Dunkin’ Donuts and the high-end stuff.  However, for many of us, particularly those of us in urban locations saturated by coffeehouses, drinking coffee is a commonplace, even expensive coffee.

It seems to me a little like saying one likes an Apple.  Tons of people like Apples.  Or Nikes.  Or bagels.  Or nice cameras.  Or iPods.  Tons of people have iPods now.  That doesn’t mean that everyone does or even wants to.  I was speaking hyperbolically in my post for effect.  But it does mean that iPods have gone mass-market.  It’s not really that exceptional to own one, is it?

My last point is not really a point.  It’s simply to state that the post about coffee–with the Shooting Cows series, if it really deserves to be called a “series”–is all in good fun.  I’m writing it with my tongue in my cheek.  Certainly, liking a specific kind or style of coffee can be a marker of one’s identity.  It’s valid to state what you like.  As I noted, I love coffee.  I am something of an evangelist for it.

I simply thought it was funny that in surfing my peers’ blogs, I so often came across them pointing out their love for coffee.  It occurred to me that among us young and hip Christians, many of us like coffee, yet few of us seem to realize its widespread popularity.  That’s funny to me, but not in a cutting way.  If it’s not to others, fine.  Just know I’m not throwing stones here.

And if it’s cliche to point out cliches, then the new cliche must be mocking those who mock.

Touche!