Coffee Culture　咖啡文化

Coffee Culture　咖啡文化

◎ Alex

“Give me a decaf triple venti, 2 pump vanilla, non-fat, extra hot, stirred, no foam caramel macchiato with whip cream and caramel sauce top and bottom.”

“給我來一杯三倍濃縮、兩份香草、低咖啡因的超大杯無泡脫脂焦糖瑪奇朵咖啡，需要高溫混勻，再淋上焦糖跟奶油。”

If you happen to be standing in one of the ubiquitous Starbucks or Coffee Bean chains in the US, chances are pretty good you might hear someone order something like this. The advent of big business coffee powerhouses like Starbucks has transformed coffee-drinking into an extremely popular and profitable industry that is quickly spreading across the globe. Like other successful consumer-oriented businesses with a stranglehold on modern culture (iPod and Google come to mind), big coffeehouse businesses have made their product increasingly user-friendly, highly customizable, and readily accessible to people all around the world.

星巴克或香啡繽咖啡連鎖店在美國隨處可見，如果你碰巧在店里，就會聽到有人這樣點單。類似星巴克這種大型咖啡連鎖店的出現(xiàn)，已經(jīng)把喝咖啡包裝成一種高利潤大眾產(chǎn)業(yè)，并在全球范圍內(nèi)迅速推廣。就像那些消費導向型的成功企業(yè)，比如我們馬上想到的iPod和谷歌，時刻左右著現(xiàn)代文化的走向，大型咖啡連鎖店的產(chǎn)品越來越便利、越來越個性化，同時也越來越適宜在全世界推廣。

Coffee has a history dating back to at least the 9th century and has been a catalyst for social interaction across cultures and eras. Originally discovered in Ethiopia, coffee beans were brought into the Middle East by Arab traders, spreading to Egypt, Yemen, Persia, Turkey, and North Africa by the 15th century. Muslim merchants eventually brought the beans to the thriving port city of Venice, where they sold them to wealthy Italian buyers. Soon, the Dutch began importing and growing coffee in places like Java and Ceylon (largely through slave labor), and the British East India Trading Company was popularizing the beverage in England. Coffee spread across Europe and even reached America.

咖啡的歷史至少可以追溯到9世紀，當時咖啡是跨文化跨時代、促進社會交流的催化劑?？Х榷棺畛醢l(fā)現(xiàn)于埃塞俄比亞，后經(jīng)阿拉伯商人傳至中東地區(qū)，時至15世紀，便已遍及埃及、也門、波斯、土耳其及北非各國。穆斯林商販接著把咖啡豆傳到了繁榮的港口城市威尼斯，賣給意大利的有錢人。不久，荷蘭人開始進口咖啡豆，并在爪哇和錫蘭等地種植，勞力基本上都是奴隸。大不列顛東印度貿(mào)易公司將咖啡飲料在英格蘭普及開來。隨后，咖啡傳遍歐洲，甚至遠達美洲。

Where there has been coffee, there has been the coffeehouse. From the 15th century Middle Eastern establishments where men gathered to listen to music, play chess, and hear recitations from works of literature, to Paris’ Cafe le Procope where luminaries of the French Enlightenment such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot came to enjoy a hot cup of Joe, coffeehouses have traditionally served as centers of social interaction, places where people can come to relax, chat, and exchange ideas.

哪里有咖啡，哪里就有咖啡館。從15世紀中東地區(qū)的人們聚在一起聽音樂、下棋、聽述文學作品的公共場所，到法國啟蒙運動時期諸如伏爾泰、盧梭、狄德羅這種赫赫有名的大人物品嘗熱咖啡的巴黎普洛科普咖啡館，足見咖啡館自古就是人們休閑、聊天、交流思想的社交中心。

The modern coffee shop is modeled on the espresso and pastry-centered Italian coffeehouses that arose with the establishment of Italian-American immigrant communities in major US cities such as New York City’s Little Italy and Greenwich Village, Boston’s North End, and San Francisco’s North Beach. New York coffee shops were often frequented by the Beats in the 1950’s. It wasn’t long before Seattle and other parts of the Pacific Northwest were developing coffee shops as part of a thriving counterculture scene. The Seattle-based Starbucks took this model and brought it into mainstream culture.

現(xiàn)代咖啡館的模式源自主營濃縮咖啡和油酥點心的意大利咖啡館，隨著意大利裔移民社區(qū)在美國各大城市的建立，這種咖啡廳也陸續(xù)落戶于紐約的小意大利、格林尼治村、波斯頓的北端和舊金山的北灘區(qū)等地。20世紀50年代，紐約咖啡館成為“垮掉的一代”常常光顧的地方。不久之后，西雅圖和太平洋西北岸其他地區(qū)咖啡館的也蓬勃發(fā)展起來，為欣欣向榮的反主流文化大潮推波助瀾。源自西雅圖的星巴克借鑒了這一模式，把咖啡館引入主流文化。

Although coffeehouses today continue to serve their traditional purpose as lively social hubs in many communities, they have noticeably adapted to the times. Rediscovering their purpose as centers of information exchange and communication, many coffee shops now provide their customers with internet access and newspapers. It has become extremely common to see someone sitting at a Starbucks listening to music or surfing the web on his or her laptop. Coffee stores today also maintain a fairly identifiable, yet unique aesthetic: wooden furniture and plush couches, paintings and murals drawn on walls, and soft-lighting combine to give coffee shops the cozy feeling of a home away from home.

盡管今天的咖啡館在很多地方依舊扮演著社交活動中心的傳統(tǒng)角色，但顯而易見，它們一直在與時俱進。現(xiàn)在的許多咖啡店又重新成為信息交換和思想交流中心，為顧客提供網(wǎng)絡服務和報刊雜志。在星巴克里聽歌或者用筆記本電腦上網(wǎng)，似乎已經(jīng)成了司空見慣的現(xiàn)象。今天的咖啡店仍然保持著一種易于辨識且獨具特色的審美品味：木質(zhì)的家具，松軟的沙發(fā)，墻上的油畫和壁畫，再加上柔和的燈光，為整個咖啡館營造出一種居家般的溫馨氛圍。

Today, big business retail coffee shops are expanding quickly all over the world. Starbucks alone has stores in over 40 countries and plans to add more. Despite its popularity, Starbucks has been criticized and labeled by many as a blood-sucking corporate machine, driving smaller coffee shops out of business through unfair practices. This has even spawned an anti-corporate coffee counterculture, with those subscribing to this culture boycotting big business coffee chains. Increasingly popular coffee stores such as The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf are also giving Starbucks some stiff competition. In any case, it seems pretty clear that coffee has weaved itself into the fabric of our consumer-oriented culture.

今天，大型零售咖啡店正在全球迅速擴張，僅星巴克一家就在全球40多個國家設立了分店，同時還在籌劃開設更多的分店。星巴克盡管十分流行，但常被人們貼上“吸血機器”的標簽，人們對他們通過不公平競爭擠兌小型咖啡店的行為詬病不已。這些批判之聲甚至形成一股反企業(yè)咖啡的反主流風潮，支持者們大力抵制大型商業(yè)咖啡連鎖店。再加上，香啡繽和茶葉這類咖啡店越來越受大眾歡迎，也對星巴克構成了強有力的競爭。無論如何，咖啡顯然已經(jīng)融入我們的消費主義文化，并成為了其不可分割的一部分。

Coffee, it would seem, is more than just a drink. From early on after its inception, coffee has been tied closely with cultural trends and has been indicative of important periods in history. It was poured into the cups of the giants of the French Enlightenment as they changed the course of human thought, it was placed on the backs of Brazilian slaves in the era of Imperialism, it’s fragrance was in the air as Beat poets like Kerouac and Ginsberg wrote of their alienation, and it is here now as the world continues to change in this era of technology and globalization. So the next time you enjoy your latte or your ice-cold caramel frappuccino, appreciate the fact that you are connected to countless numbers of people spanning many different cultures and eras through your love of that wondrous beverage: coffee.

咖啡似乎不再只是單純的飲料了?？Х葎傄怀霈F(xiàn)，就和文化潮流緊密相連，成為歷史重要時期的表征之一。法國啟蒙運動時期，文學巨匠們改變?nèi)祟愃枷胲壽E時，杯子里斟滿的是咖啡；帝國主義時期，壓彎巴西奴隸們背脊的是咖啡；垮掉派詩人凱魯亞克、金斯伯格書寫他們的離經(jīng)叛道時，空氣中彌漫的也是咖啡的香氣；即便是在科技和全球化不斷改變著世界的今日，見證這一切的還是咖啡。因此，當你下次享用拿鐵或冰焦糖星冰樂時，請想象一下，你正與諸多跨文化跨時代的偉人溝通交流，而這種美妙的體驗，正來自你對咖啡這種神奇飲料的熱愛。

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