CAFE NOISE
Coffee menus can feel bewildering with all the macchiatos, cortados, trioccinos and flat whites.
So I usually stick to the basic at my sleek cafe.
AMERICANO
But now an Americano could become a political statement. I hear the trade war between USA and Canada is making even coffee more bitter.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata.
Some coffee shops in Canada had decided to re-christen their Americanos as Canadianos. Some coffee shops now list Canadiano on the menu next to a red and white maple leaf flag.
Scott Simon talked about it on NPR
SS1: "We don't need any American products right now," Todd Simpson, who owns the Morning Owl coffeeshops in Ottawa, told CTV News. "It seems like a really good way to say we're Canadian," although the coffee beans they brew are more likely grown in Central America than, say, Alberta.
The beans surely come from neither USA nor Canada thereby underscoring how the world remains connected despite any Buy Canadian or Make America Great Again bravado. Binnie Varghese is co-founder of the Barista Training Academy in India.
BV1: Even today, a lot of people, even in US and Europe, they do not know that a lot of their coffee that they are drinking comes from India. I think that education gap that always existed, the colonies that were existing for centuries, they all created their market in the idea of serving the global North.
The other irony is Americano might anyway not be wholly complimentary. Popular lore has it the term’s origins lie in American soldiers stationed in Italy during World War II. They found the Italian espresso a little too strong. So they diluted it with hot water so that it was a little closer to their usual drip coffee. So American is basically coffee with a bit of an Italian eye-roll.
It all brings back memories of an American congressman naming French Fries as Freedom Fries to punish France’s opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. There were precedents. During World War I, sauerkraut was named “liberty cabbage” and frankfurters were named liberty dogs to score some anti-German points.
In that case the French embassy reminded everyone that French fries actually originated in Belgium.
But it’s a reminder that innocuous names can still pack unexpected punch. The Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 did not begin in Spain. Chinmay Tumble is the author of The Age of Pandemics - 1817-1920. How they shaped India and the World.
CT1: Let’s say the West was much more paranoid about cholera and plague instance back then because that was seen to be a disease of the east then influenza, which, you know, people call it Spanish flu, but really it was an American flu Most likely the origins were in Mid West.
But because Spain was neutral in the war, there was less censorship and more reporting of the flu there. The name stuck though British soldiers called it the Flanders flu and the Brazilians called it the German flu.
Nowadays WHO does not name diseases after countries. But I think greater scrutiny of nationalistic naming conventions whether of diseases or coffees or cats is a good idea. It might clear up a lot of cultural confusion. Indian ink was actually brought from China. A Persian cat is not really from Persia. And the American favourite Thanksgiving turkey has nothing to do with Turkey.
Many of these designations carry the sorry baggage of cultural confusion, historical inaccuracies and mixed-up passports, not to mention colonial hangovers. Perhaps this could be the opportunity for a cultural spring cleaning that would return all things to their rightful owners. A sort of linguistic equivalent to the return of the Elysian Marbles.
We try to flaunt or purge the associations depending on the national mood. Countries and cities rename themselves to shed colonial baggage. Bombay becomes Mumbai, leaving Bombay Duck and Bombay gin stranded. Now India wants to change its name to Bharat. But will it have to let go of the Indian Ocean? But now that America has said it can rename water bodies after itself other countries might follow suit leading to map fights.
As for Canadiano who knows if it will catch on. Freedom fries started out with a bang. Then the invasion lost public approval soon enough, and the congressional cafeterias quietly returned to their French fries in 2006.
Now it seems freedom smells like coffee. And it’s time it seems to wake up and smell it.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW.