The story of the basic knowledge of coffee culture and the name of coffee.

In a consumer society, the so-called necessities are no longer just to meet basic needs. Like coffee, if you don't drink it, you won't die, but if you don't drink it, you won't be able to turn on electricity for a day. Before you know it, it becomes an addiction-everyone has a little addiction, not coffee, but something else.

In Hong Kong, not many people speak French Caf é au lait. People are more familiar with foaming latte. Fortunately, it has not been completely "localized" and is called "latte" coffee. The name of coffee, from coffee beans to coffee brands to coffee shops, is actually the knowledge of life.

When I travel to places where there may not be a coffee shop (like I went to Inner Mongolia earlier), I must bring a box of instant coffee, usually a Nescafe three-in-one. When you order coffee in a tea restaurant or a fast food restaurant such as Meixin, everyone's Lok, Da Happy and so on, you don't need to name the coffee. The former's "Jie Rong" coffee, while the latter's instant coffee, is fragrant, but it always lacks a little flavor.

In the chain and general coffee shops, our choice is nothing more than latte, mocha, cappuccino, expresso, in fact, they are the names of Italian coffee drinks. European coffee has gone through Starbucks and even McDonald's collectivization, Americanization and even globalization. for many customers, the above names have become almost all choices in the coffee kingdom.

In fact, coffee is a bit like red wine, with a place of origin and a coffee farm name, in which coffee farmers plant coffee trees and harvest coffee beans. It is said that postmodern culture changes from "production" to "consumption". When we consume, we come into contact with all kinds of packaging, but it is actually separated from the production process, and the latter is completely backstage (unless deliberately as a display). The above coffee name is an example.

On one occasion, when I was Cultural Mentor for the Ministry of General Studies of the University of Hong Kong, I took four college students to visit Xen, an independent coffee shop, to have a chat while sipping coffee. Most of the coffee choices there are named after the country or region of origin, such as Java Arabica, Colombian Excelso, Sumatra Mandheling, Mocha Java Blend and so on. Yes, "Mocha" (the most authentic Arabic version is "Al-Mahka") is actually the name of a Yemeni port for exporting coffee, which has nothing to do with what people refer to as "chocolate coffee". If you have bought "fairtrade" coffee, you naturally know that their "co-opt" coffee is also named after the country or region of origin, such as Ethiopia (Ethiopian), Guatemala (Guatemalan Rainforest) and Nicaragua (Nicaraguan). Every name is a story.