The Decadence of Coffee

One of the major problems with our food and beverage industry today is that the cost that we pay at the supermarket or online distributer rarely includes the true cost of the item, including its toll on our planet. Recently, a group of friends and I spent a weekend at a cabin and shared the responsibilities of preparing and purchasing our meals. While in charge of breakfast one morning, I went around asking who would be having coffee and how many cups they planned on drinking. I was met with blank stares and uncertainty. Finally someone casually answered, just go ahead and make the whole pot. Yikes! Fear of being what I consider to be a most deplorable attribute, cheap, I passively agreed, then later regretted dumping a few unwanted cups down the sink.
While doing so, I recalled a favorite scene from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. Francie is allowed one cup of coffee a day. Rather than drink it, she chooses to pour it down the drain feigning nonchalance. 

She does this, not because she dislikes coffee, on the contrary, she loves it, but what she loves more is the exhiliration she gets from mimicking a behavior reserved for the affluent. Now that's someone who appreciates the value of a cup of coffee.
At pennies a cup, even for shade grown, fair trade, organic coffee, it may not seem like much was wasted, but I had to think about the true cost, not only to me, but to our planet. That coffee had traveled thousands of miles to get to us. Energy was used to grow, harvest, ship and roast those beans, using up our dwindling supply of fossil fuels and warming our atomosphere in the process. While I have tremendous respect for those of you who have given up indulgences like coffee, tea and chocolate for a less costly, local diet, I have yet to make that step. At the very least though, I have resolved to savor every sip and to recognize the absolute decadence of coffee.