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Coffee is likely one of the nice loves of my life, and I’m not alone. The majority of my fellow Americans love espresso too, a lot in order that they refuse most options—together with yerba mate, an energizing possibility that occurs to be South America’s most consumed beverage. “True, yerba mate is bitter and tastes like freshly cut grass,” Lauren Silverman wrote this week. “But coffee tastes like burnt rubber the first time you try it, and Americans can’t get enough.”
Americans’ obsession with espresso is partly because of the approach we reside. As Silverman notes, sitting down for an hour or two and sharing a beverage—the standard strategy to devour yerba mate—is just not one thing Americans are used to.
Coffee, then again, is the right drink for America’s on-the-go, work-obsessed tradition. In 2020, Michael Pollan wrote that espresso “freed us from the circadian rhythms of our body, helping to stem the natural tides of exhaustion so that we might work longer and later hours. Coffee, he writes, “has helped create exactly the kind of world that coffee needs to thrive: a world driven by consumer capitalism, ringed by global trade, and dominated by a species that can now barely get out of bed without its help.”
It’s a bit disturbing to think about a beloved morning ritual this manner. But, in fact, we’ll carry on consuming it. Once you get used to that burnt-rubber style (I want to name it “mud-like”), there’s no going again.
On Coffee
The Coffee Alternative Americans Just Can’t Get Behind
By Lauren Silverman
The yerba mate in U.S. grocery shops is nothing like the actual brew.
By Amanda Mull
Personal-finance gurus actually hate espresso.
By Michael Pollan
The darkish historical past of how espresso took over the world
Still Curious?
Other Diversions
P.S.
The relationship that espresso and capitalism have shared for hundreds of years is likely to be coming to an finish, Pollan famous in his essay: “Coffea arabica is a picky plant, willing to grow only in the narrowest range of conditions,” and local weather change will make these circumstances a lot tougher to return by.
— Isabel