F.R.I.E.N.D.S Central Perk and the Story of Cafe Culture around the world

 

“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love."

                                                   -   An old Turkish Proverb

 

“Central Perk 7” is the iconic café from the famous sitcom “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”. This café is second setting in FRIENDS after their home. Even the show opens its first scene in that café, and throughout the entire series that is the favorite place to hangout for FRIENDS’ Characters. 

Central Perk from FRIENDS

                                          

Other Netflix web-series also shown café culture prominently (Granny’s diner in “Once upon a time”, Mystic Grill in Vampire Diaries etc.) and infact that was the influence of these series which popularized café culture among urban professional Indians.

Mystic Grill form Vampire Diaries

   

Granny's Diner from Once Upon a Time

            

This Café culture is different from restaurant culture. People don’t go in Café for hurry lunch or dinner, they choose to go café for a lazy time. People come and sip coffee while reading newspapers, magazines, or books and café also organize performance of artists, which also attract many people. People also choose to go in café for their professional work or to work on any research, thesis or to discuss on topics. We also know the term “discussion over a cup of coffee”.

In these Cafés, People hang out for relaxation, leisure, romance, negotiations, fixing marriage and divorce, businesses, real estate deals, interviews, counseling, studies, projects, and what not. And often alone with laptop, tablets, books, study notes, and newspapers - all over a cup of excellent coffee.

The book The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (1999) by Ray Oldenburg categorized Cafés and Coffee Shops as the “third Place”, a place between Home (first place) and Work (second Place) where people spend their time as a community.

This “third place” provide “a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work”.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CAFÉ CULTURE AROUND THE WORLD

Europeans are the highest consumers of coffee, with the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Norway and Iceland enjoying the most java per capita in the world.[1] But Coffee is not the discovery of European, Coffee was first found at Ethiopia and Café culture was also not started from Europe or America, it was began at Turkey in Ottoman Times, and form there, this culture spreaded all over the world and blended with local culture.

Starting with the Ottoman Empire, this drink has become widespread; no doubt coffeehouses have had a major role in popularizing and spreading the drink.

Coffeehouses were first opened in the Tahtakale neighborhood of Istanbul almost five centuries ago. In Ottoman times, it was in coffeehouses that the bard, the comedian, the “Karagöz” (shadow play) artist would set their stage and perform. Hence, until the middle of the 20th century, coffeehouses served as production and exhibition places for folk literature. Coffee was always the favored drink of these lively and colorful locations, and starting from the Ottoman culture of the 16th century, it continued its worldwide spread.[2]

A coffee house from Old Turkey

Coffee cultivation and trade began on the Arabian Peninsula.  By the 15th century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the 16th century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Coffee Houses- Qahveh khaneh (कहवा खाने) became famous and start to appear in cities across the Near East. The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activity.  Not only did the patrons drink coffee and engage in conversation, but they also listened to music, watched performers, played chess and kept current on the news.  Coffee houses quickly became such an important center for the exchange of information that they were often referred to as “Schools of the Wise.”[3]

With thousands of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Mecca each year from all over the world, knowledge of this “wine of Araby” began to spread. European travelers to the Near East brought back stories of an unusual dark black beverage. By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent. Some people reacted to this new beverage with suspicion or fear, calling it the “bitter invention of Satan.” The local clergy condemned coffee when it came to Venice in 1615. The controversy was so great that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He decided to taste the beverage for himself before making a decision, and found the drink so satisfying that he gave it papal approval.[4]

A London Coffee House from 17th Century

Despite such controversy, coffee houses were quickly becoming centers of social activity and communication in the major cities of England, Austria, France, Germany and Holland.[5]

In the mid-1600's, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, later called New York by the British. Though coffee houses rapidly began to appear, tea continued to be the favored drink in the New World until 1773, when the colonists revolted against a heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III. The revolt, known as the Boston Tea Party, would forever change the American drinking preference to coffee. It became the patriotic duty to drink coffee.[6]

Boston Tea Party

CAFÉ CULTURE IN INDIA

Indians are first lovers of Tea (Chai) but Coffee is not new to the Indians and this beverage has been consumed in India from early 15^th Century. And it is making a name for itself in Indian Culture as a whole, with a steady 5% increase in Consumption each year.  

Coffee Culture is becoming popular in India due to urban youth who are choosing coffee houses as places to meet up. However, coffee houses are also not new to the Indians.

In the early 1940s, a small group of dismissed Indian Coffee Board members created the “Indian Coffee House” brand that exists today. In 1957, the "Indian Coffee House" was the first coffee shop to open in the country. It still serves loyal patrons at over 400 locations. "Cafe Coffee Day" is the Starbucks of India. With over 1500 stores across the country, this convenient café and coffee shop chain provides a place for people to meet up while simultaneously opening the coffee market to a widespread audience.^[7]

Indian Coffee House

In new era, American TV shows have a big hand in making coffee culture popular in India. Either, it is to meet with friends over a cup of tea or to do meetings with clients or business owners, Indian professionals choosing coffee houses and café culture making wider shape in India. Watching someone enter a cafe with a laptop and a bunch of files in hand and later be joined by a couple of more ‘suited’ professionals at the table, has become quite a normal visual in India. It’s the new ‘in thing’, rather a ‘new work culture’.

Books N Brew cafe in Sector 16, Chandigarh, where Indian Singer Akhil's Khaab song also shot

These individuals not just work alone in the cafe but also conduct meetings with other coworkers. Various important business deals are made in cafes, marketing and financial strategies are formed, startup ideas are born, and work life is made much simpler. 

World has been converted in Global village. So, if any culture is popularizing in western countries, Hollywood series and movies show it, People around the world watch it and it also become the culture in another countries. Café Culture is the proof of it.

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] “Coffee Countries: How a cup of joy is enjoyed around the world”  available at : https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/02/27/coffee-countries-around-the-world_n_2774882.html (visited on 8-29-2021)

[2] “The Tradition of coffee and coffee house among Turks” available at http://www.turkishculture.org/lifestyles/turkish-culture-portal/coffeehouses-204.htm?type=1  (visited on 8-29-2021)

[3] “History of Coffee” available at https://www.ncausa.org/About-Coffee/History-of-Coffee (visited on 8-29-2021)

[4] ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] ibid

[7] https://club.atlascoffeeclub.com/exploring-traditional-indian-coffee-culture/