I saw a claim online somewhere a few weeks ago that I can’t get out of my head.
The claim was something like “it takes ~150 people to get a single cup of coffee to you”.
For this post I don’t actually care about the exact number - maybe 150ish is correct in some contexts, maybe it’s way off, who knows. The point is there’s this thing that’s always magically available to me that I’ve never really stopped to question.
I’m spoiled living in New York - I’m typing this from my bed right now, where I can see my favorite local coffee shop across the street. I could walk 10 minutes in any direction and buy coffee from probably 100 different places.
What a logistical miracle!
The people
Let’s try to think through all the various people responsible for feeding my caffeine addiction:
- Someone had to plant a coffee plant (in the right climate)
- Someone had to take care of that plant (for years) and make sure it grew enough to produce fruit
- Someone had to harvest the ripe coffee cherries once ready
- Someone had to process the picked coffee cherries (various methods exist, and this may include multiple steps like drying, hulling, grading, and sorting)
- Someone had to package the newly uncovered green coffee beans for transport
- Someone had to transport the green coffee beans to the US
- Someone had to roast the green coffee beans
- Someone had to package the roasted beans for transport
- Someone had to transport the roasted beans to my local coffee shop or grocery store
- Someone had to grind the roasted beans
- Someone had to brew the coffee grounds
- Drink time!
My mind is blown
After thinking about all the time, people, effort, and energy involved in this process, it’s insane that I can walk across the street and buy a coffee for a few bucks.
It’s also insane how easy it is to take things for granted. Assuming minimum wage, I can buy an Americano for the equivalent of ~15 minutes of labor. How many years did those beans take to grow? How many hands touched those beans, from picking coffee cherries to processing them? How much expertise went into roasting those beans at the exact right temperature for the optimal amount of time? How many miles did those beans travel in total?
This whole coffee supply chain thing has given me a new perspective, and is helping me feel more appreciation (in fact, I have more thoughts on appreciation brewing (pun intended) that I plan to include in a follow-up post soon). Next time you take a sip of your favorite drink, I hope you can give a silent cheers to everyone who helped get it to you. Appreciating the little things can be a great reminder that as crazy as our world is, it’s sometimes pretty incredible too.