A Closer Look at the New Coffee Generation

Sail Boston was coming to town July 10^th through the 16^th in 1992. The Tall Ships were on their way and so were the crowds. I specifically remember this date because I picked up one of those promotional Sail Boston 1992 posters on the street to commemorate the event. This beautifully framed poster reminds me of the date every time I see it buried against the wall in an upstairs closet.

We made plans to leave town to avoid the incoming crowds. As was true with many North End residents, we were happy to leave the city whenever an event like this caused an influx of suburban folk to infiltrate our Italian neighborhood in search of overpriced pasta.

We made special plans to stay at the Wilderness Inn in New Hampshire. It was a bed and breakfast, and we were warmly welcomed by the owners. It was my first stay at a bed and breakfast, so I found the whole experience to be a bit awkward having to socialize with random people who were attempting to casually blend in while acclimating themselves to the inn’s common areas. I quickly warmed up to conversation with the owners, however, when I realized that they would be the ones responsible for feeding me.

After a quiet night listening to the sounds of a river running just outside our room rather than the usual late night banging of trash cans that we were accustomed to in the city, we both woke up excited about the prospect of breakfast. I had already given in to the fact that this would mean engaging in more banter with various travelers which suddenly seemed more intimidating to me than a tourist in Boston asking me where they could find the nearest cannoli. Within minutes of sitting at our table I was informed that the Wilderness Inn served only one beverage with breakfast: coffee. At that point in my life I did not yet drink coffee. Coffee was the beverage of seasoned adults. We had been told as kids that drinking coffee would stunt our growth, and as I had risen to the modest adult height of 5’8” I was still unsure about taking the risk. At this point in 1992, coffee was not something that you would associate with people just entering the professional world. As I frustratingly contemplated my lack of beverage choices, my significant other looked at me with that gaze that women give men when they know they are about to take a really infantile stance in public when something is not going their way even though, in the grand scheme of things, the issue is remarkably minor. And, as women are often equipped to do, she quietly sold me into the idea of coffee by telling me that I would probably like it. I did what I had to do. Moving somewhat against my will toward a benchmark of true adulthood, I acquiesced and politely said to our waitress, “I’ll have the coffee, please.” A beautiful sunny summer day was blossoming outside. We ate an incredibly fancy breakfast, at least for someone whose idea of fancy at the time meant a side of toast with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, and I drank coffee. I was now part of The New Coffee Generation.

Almost a decade before this trip to New Hampshire, a promotional ad campaign ran on all three television networks celebrating The New Coffee Generation, commercials that highlighted the Coffee Achievers. These 1984 television spots were the work of the National Coffee Association (not to be confused with the National Sleep Foundation), and featured Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson, actress Cicely Tyson, rock legend David Bowie, writer Kurt Vonnegut, the rock band Heart, Jane Curtin from the original cast of Saturday Night Live, and New Wave musician Joe Jackson. These television ads claimed that coffee would give you “the time to dream it, and the vitality to do it.” The ads were cloaked in the music of the Electric Light Orchestra’s 1981 hit, Hold on Tight to Your Dreams, which reportedly says, “I would like a small regular with cream and sugar” when played backwards. The National Coffee Association professed that if you believed it, you could achieve it, the historical parallel being John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address while raising a cup of Maxwell House.

After breakfast, which included multiple cups of coffee, we went hiking. I had never felt better or more energized in what was, at that point, a comparatively short life. I suggested that after hiking up Loon Mountain that morning we might try climbing to the top of Mt. Washington before lunch, possibly even jogging the final five miles to the summit. Adding coffee to my morning routine was, indeed, a fine addition. I wished that I had been turned on to coffee at a much earlier age, like nursery school.

Coffee immediately became a permanent part of my life, but I knew that my newfound identity as a Coffee Achiever meant that I had become a very small fish in a much larger marketing pool. The National Coffee Association had taken its mission seriously in 1984 with consumers now opening their wallets to coffee retailers to the tune of $1,768.00 a year, at least if they ordered a medium coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts twice a day, five days a week which quickly became my habit after returning from New Hampshire that summer.

Everyone is now drinking coffee. What was once a late morning pleasantry shared by two adults finding their way through conversation and possibly a cigarette was now the domain of quarterbacks, actors, and rock stars, meaning that kids were the primary target of the coffee industry in the same way that youngsters had already been singled out by Big Tobacco. Once the kids were roped in, the retail coffee giants expanded their menus exponentially. Establishments like Dunkin’ Donuts that traditionally sold coffee, donuts, and specialty muffins only on occasion soon began offering cookie dough coolattas, caramel swirl iced lattes, chocolate chip cookie flavored coffee, chocolate cake coffee, fudge brownie coffee, cupcake flavored coffee, and something called a dunkaccino - which I think sounds like a casual dress pant that might also be used for swimming. Dunkin’ Donuts also offers a large selection of overpriced, microwave sandwiches poor enough in quality to make McDonald’s look like a steakhouse with each individual order guaranteed to dramatically slow down any line you are attempting to get through before the onset of the next millennium. They also sell cookies and glorified desserts for every holiday imaginable with the possible exception of Groundhog Day, although don’t hold me to that. Last but not least, Dunkin’ Donuts still has donuts and muffins which you can conveniently order by dialing 1-800-BORING.

Dunkin’ Donuts is not completely to blame. When Starbucks arrived on the scene in Boston it certainly upped the corporate ante, challenging Dunkin’ Donuts to increase its selection and, as a result, increase its prices in an attempt to compete with the hip Seattle market. With Starbucks introducing a more expensive, gourmet addition to the playing field, Dunkin’ Donuts was inclined to profitably oblige and rightfully so from a business standpoint. While the prices for a small, medium, and large coffee were .60, .75, and .85 cents respectively during the mid-1990s, they have since risen to $2.90, $3.40, and $3.90 depending on which Dunkin’ Donuts location you frequent. Starbucks is not any cheaper, although they arrived with the expectation that they would be a more expensive alternative. This rate of coffee inflation is tantamount to buying a 2025 Toyota Corolla for somewhere around $75,000.00 and while the Corolla is an extremely reputable car, you would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to pay $75,000.00 for one, never mind buying one every morning and afternoon as was once my caffeine-induced routine.

We must remember that Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks are corporate wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are profiting from and encouraging what could be construed as our next American health crisis. By enticing our youth in a way similar to how the cigarette giants marketed their products to kids years ago, these coffee magnates are committing equally unethical attempts at enlarging their already enormous profit margins at the expense of children.

Gone are the days of the famed Dunkin’ Donuts character played by Mike Vale, a man that I had the pleasure of getting to know while working at the Sheraton Tara Hotel in Braintree, Massachusetts during the late 1980s. Mr. Vale played Fred the Baker in a popular series of television ads for Dunkin’ Donuts, always dragging himself out of bed declaring, “It’s time to make the donuts.” There would never be enough time in Fred’s day to make the donuts with the overexpanded model that Dunkin’ Donuts currently uses as its business template. Service is no longer the priority. Money is, and it comes at the expense of our kids who continue to hand over their plastic for liquefied cupcakes, caramel brownies, and chocolate cake. Is it really any wonder that childhood obesity is commonly referenced as a contemporary social malady in America? Kids are understandably enticed by the sugary appeal of what America apparently runs on. But if we are actually going to preach wellness as is so commonly implied these days with yet another societal buzzword, let’s leave the typical targets like school lunches out of the equation. It isn’t necessarily what happens in our school cafeterias that is deteriorating the health of today’s kids. It is more likely the fault of the beverages that they are arriving at school with.

There is an alternative, and it is a healthier one for both our kids and our communities. Take advantage of your local coffee establishments before they are squeezed out by corporate coffee giants and disappear from our neighborhoods completely. When I lived in Boston’s North End years ago, I would get my coffee every morning from the original Mangia-Mangia on Endicott Street. I was greeted daily from behind the counter and my coffee was handed to me with a sense of community, the polar opposite of waiting in an extraordinarily long drive-thru line, forking over $7.39 for dessert in a cup, being solicited to provide a tip, and driving away only to realize that your order is wrong.

Entertaining this option might require you to leave your car and enter a coffee shop, a cafe, or a general store, but small businesses are more important than ever in our local communities and they need to be embraced. Growing up in the small town of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts I remember being brought into a place called Luddy’s and sitting at the breakfast counter. The smell of coffee permeated the air and the sounds of an awakening community were in every corner. It was not packaged, it was not antiseptic, and it was not impersonal – and the memory is irreplaceable. So if you are looking for some neighborhood community coffee in Massachusetts check out the Coffee Corner or the Lucky Finn Cafe in Scituate. If you are on Cape Cod stop by the “Coop” in Cotuit, head to Moonakis in East Falmouth, or make a trip to Pie in the Sky down in Woods Hole. The Corner Café in Marshfield has earned an excellent reputation with locals and the Brant Rock Market along the shoreline in Marshfield is a popular morning destination by the beach. If you are further inland, try Restoration Coffee or the Central Street Cafe in East Bridgewater. And if you find yourself in the city of Boston, find an old established spot where the neighborhood locals go like Theo’s Cozy Corner in the North End, the Paramount on Charles Street, or a place like Lyndell’s Bakery or Kelly’s Diner in Somerville.

If you want to be a real Coffee Achiever, support your local breakfast counters and neighborhood coffee establishments and don’t let them get swallowed up by corporate impostors.

But if you find yourself growing out of your dunkaccinos, you know where to find your morning beverage.