10/29/2007

Regular Coffee #1: Just Shoot Me!

 

WHAT IS REGULAR COFFEE? How about a Clover coffee? Who is John Galt? Why so many questions?

Recently I have run into two conflicting phenomenon. The first is the growth in people willing to drink espresso straight. The second is people bewildered and asking for “just regular or black coffee.” I will admit that I have been admitting to people who request regular coffee that I don’t know what they are asking for. Is there something confusing going on here where we are conspiring to sow discord among the “regular coffee drinkers” by giving them a choice?

I just finished reading Ayn Rand’s epic tome Atlas Shrugged and one of the author’s main bugaboos is that people simply do not want to choose what to do in life. In a pivotal scene one of the protagonists, Dagny, is attempting to rescue John Galt. The guard has been instructed not to let anyone see him. Dagny tells the guard she has been authorized to see John Galt and that the guard must choose whether to believe her or the person who initially gave the instructions. The guard says he is not able to make that decision, he is simply there to guard John Galt. So Dagny shoots him.

While I am certainly not advocating shooting people who ask for black coffee, I am shooting for a world in which people can make a coffee choice with the help of the right equipment and trained professionals.

If you apply the logic of asking for coffee by color or regularness to other foodstuffs, you quickly realize how it is coffees turn to evolve. When you go to a restaurant do you typically make the following demands?

· How about a salad? Just bring me some regular lettuce.

· Maybe soup instead. I don’t care what it tastes like as long as it’s hot and dark.

· I just want red or white wine with the meal. Just make sure to bring the right color and make sure there is alcohol in it. Don’t make me choose between the different types.

· Just regular beef please. None of those exotic, different tasting cuts like filet mignon with all that fancy French terminology. I wouldn’t pay more for that.

· Can you slice a red tomato on top of my beef?

· I would just like yellow cheese. Government cheese should do the trick.

· How about some white bread?

· For dessert just bring some regular cake or regular pie with a cup of regular coffee.

Anything irregular about ordering regular? You can shoot me now!

Part 2:  The Solution--What is Clover coffee?

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