Because this blog page centres on the near-divine subject of coffee, I am about to put myself in a very dangerous position. You see, I thoroughly enjoy my cup of coffee (especially that mid-morning one!)… but I also have a very real love for tea. There, now I’ve actually gone and written the forbidden word! And I just know that this will be like opening a can of worms. I’m fully expecting to get heaps of nasty comments within a few minutes of posting this; along with quite a few death threats too.
Coffee is a big deal the world over – this is something we know without question. In America for example, the average consumption of coffee per head is no less than 3 cups each day, making coffee the number-1 source of caffeine in the lives of most across the western world. However, for those who for one reason or another cannot or choose not to consume caffeine, flavorful alternatives can be few or far between, though the following are indeed worthy of trying out for those seeking something a little different:
Hot drinks are a lifesaver at this time of year. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, unless you are stuck in the snow in a broken-down car, but I could not imagine leaving the house on a cold winter’s morning without at least one piping hot cup of tea nestled in my tummy! I always make sure I treat myself to a few hot chocolates once the nights start drawing in too; made with milk, heated on the stove, of course, not sachets and hot water…
Hot drinks are an important part of every culture. If you travel to Morocco, you will drink mint tea. In Turkey, you will be served small sweet and very dark cups of coffee. In India, chai rules. The rituals for preparing and presenting coffee are different across the world. In Britain, coffee rituals far too often centre around a jar, a spoon, and an electric kettle. I moved to the UK because of the plethora of great english teacher jobs in secondary schools, but I missed the diversity of coffee rituals that I was used to as an international traveller. My solution : introduce a coffee brewing module for my classes.
Begin the project by watching the video above or one that is similar. It shows the traditional method of brewing coffee in Sumatra. From this video, you can have students do writing exercises: creating a script in English for what they think the people in the video are saying or a script for a voice over explaining what is going on. These are two very different educational objectives, so you can determine what fits in best with your own students.
The above video is an instructional video on how to brew a traditional Vietnamese coffee. It is another great point of departure for a learning project. Students can write and produce similar instructional videos. They can research and reproduce a traditional Vietnamese cafe, or a play that takes place in a cafe in Vietnam. If your school is adaptable, you can create cross curricular projects with science, history, and geography. The possibilities are limitless. Sumatra and Vietnam are good examples, because the brewing methods are so distinct and different from those used in Europe and the United States, but Turkish, Greek, and Middle Eastern coffee brewing is also interesting and offers another range of educational opportunities.
Plan a coffee holiday. Plan 6 coffee holidays. The coffee growing regions of the world are both diverse and exotic, and if you are a lover of coffee, there is nothing better than organizing a one to two week exploration of a region. The brilliance of the idea is that by choosing coffee as the focus of your holiday, you will naturally be able to integrate relaxation, education and adventure.
When I say plan six, my suggestion is that you get a hold of the best hr software you can find and use it to keep track of all of the details of your trip. To plan a coffee adventure, you will need to do research into local growers, local customs for brewing and drinking coffee, as well as the other necessities that go with every trip like eating and sleeping. Keeping track of the information with software will set the ground work for helping others take similar holidays. This is vitally important. The best coffees around the world are grown in bio diverse plantations in the shade. These shade grown varieties and their accompanying wild life habitat is under threat from new varieties of coffee plants that don’t need the shade.
By planning and disseminating the concept of coffee holidays, you can help small growers earn a more sustainable income. By tracking your journey with software, you can spread information about cost, contacts and accommodation. Sumatra is a great place to start. The region not only produces some of the world’s best coffees, it also has a culture of small producers and faces ecological challenges. While Sumatra Gayo, Mandheling and Lintong, are prized arabica varieties, there is a serious problem with the deforestation of tropical rain forests to produce low grade robusta coffee. Conscious coffee drinkers visiting the region is one solution to the issue of sustainability.
