The Latte
I am a coffee drinker. Addiction seems to be unavoidable. Each morning I go to the Terrace, grabbing a cup of mild French organic toast coffee with milk but no sugar. It tastes dull, but it is helpful to keep me stay awake. Then to end my day at school, I usually go to the Caffe Mediterraneum, or the Med, on Telegraph Avenue near campus. I love sitting on the cozy second floor, enjoying a creamy latte, getting some work done and sometimes watching a variety of people going in and out.
Last year I stayed far away from the United States, first to China, then to Singapore and later to Syria. There were very great beverages in these countries, but none of them tasted like latte. I interned for a consulting firm by then and my title was a small business analyst. Perhaps if I work hard enough after graduation, I will become a business analyst, a specialized analyst, and then a very specialized analyst. The work was great; the pay wasn’t bad either. But I just didn’t have a colleague who made latte.
So, after I come back to Berkeley, I go straight to the Med, sitting at my favorite seat on the second floor and enjoying the latte that I have missed for fourteen months. The latte still tastes great, like a creamy texture. The soft light, the neatness, the relaxed atmosphere and the comfort are as familiar as to me as the latte itself. My heart dances with the lyric and romantic jazz.
With the black and white checkered floor and high-backed chairs, the Med hosts the Berkeley neighborhood and welcomes friends of this community. I see a group of students discussing their project on chemical synthesis and the environmental impacts of the new compounds designed. Another student is sitting at the table next to mine. He is talking on the phone and seemingly discussing Berkeley South Asia Awareness Week. I take a quick look at another guy’s computer screen. Facebook. Outside the café, there is a blind singer, performing a piece of country blues, I guess. A few other people are sitting on their seats alone, seems to be working very hard on their affairs. While the mixing of two materials could be mathematically modeled, harmonic integration is an art, which latte baristas certainly excel at. I look at the girl dressed in light green, who is making my delicious latte. She pours cold milk into a cup up to one third full and then pours the milk from the cup into the saucepan. While heating up the milk on the stove slowly, she opens the coffee pot, pours cold water into the bottom section and coffee grounds into the middle. After she screws the top section of the coffee pot on tight, bubbles are forming on the top of the mike in the saucepan. She pours the hot milk into a glass, making the plungers privileged. She pours the milk into the waiting hot coffee and passes the thick and creamy latte to me.
Not sure whether the Med is infected by the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of the University of California at Berkeley, but latte was invented right here, where I am sitting at. The sign on the wall reads:
While Seattle may have made this drink famous, it was invented here at the Caffe Mediterraneum in the late 1950’s. Lino Meiorin, one of the owners, was the first Italian-trained barista in the Bay Area. Customers were not used to the strong flavor of a traditional Italian cappuccino and would ask Lino for more milk. Speaking in Italian, he would tell the barista to put more latte (milk) in their cup. Finally he thought of putting a larger drink on the menu with the same amount of espresso but more steamed milk, and calling it a caffe latte. At first it was served in a bowl but soon they switched to a pint beer glass. Today lattes are often served in a wide mouth cup in order to show off hearts, rosettas and other latte art designs.
I enjoy latte, although I am not sure whether I am tasting what Lino made. Questions keep popping up in my head. How many times he practiced this new way of making coffee before calling it a new product? Was latte a product of continuous improvement, or instantaneous inspiration? Did being invented in the city of Berkeley make the latte here more special?
CONFUSION
For Berkeleyans, cafés nurture ideas.
Cal’s history in the 1960 is not complete without the Caffe Mediterraneum. The Med is listed for years in “European guidebooks as ‘the gathering place for 1960s radicals who created People’s Park”[1] and now listed in Fodor’s guidebook as “a relic of 1960s-era café culture”[2].
Can you imagine that 50 years ago, the Med, the Cody’s Books and the People’s Park incubated the ideas, discourses, and movements in front of the Sproul Plaza, which later became the symbol of liberal and free thinking of Cal? I imagine that the Med was crowded with politicians, poets, activists and intellectuals – all below 30s and leaders of their circles[3] – gathered regularly at the Med. They might be discussing a new anti-Vietnam war movement, debating on the checks and balances existing in cooperating student groups, or contemplating the negotiation strategies with the university authorities in releasing arrested student demonstrators.
At the evening of Halloween, I come to the Med and continue my search for the Berkeley spirit. Of course, few people are here today. The Med seems to be the only operating places on the street. It looks like an aged man, standing alone in windy early autumn, looking at the young people heading to San Francisco.
But now it’s quiet, so I can concentrate on my thinking.
Many old generations of Berkeley residents say that the Telegraph Avenue has been losing its vibrancy since the 1960s. Even the Med, one of the most important symbols of liberalism on the street, has made its impacts diminished as time flied. Some people even called the Med the “cockroach café”, since it’s “bordering on a homeless shelter”[4]. Yes, I do see homeless people wandering around and sleeping by the Med. It seems that the passionate Caffe Mediterraneum is associated with the homeless and the People’s Park with danger at nights. Although the homeless shelter is a common social problem existing in many cities, I start worry about whether we are losing our honorable traditions of making things better. On one hand, our coexistence and assistance to the people living with a different life style shows our acceptance and appreciation to difference. On the other hand, if we tolerate, or even protect, the negative social phenomena, such as poverty and exclusion, are we, in fact, feeling indifferent about the ones in need and never considering changing the status quo?
The latte has not changed much in the past 50 years, but our cultural and social conditions have changed dramatically. So, has Berkeley changed? What are Berkeley students currently thinking about? Will the Med become a destination for activities seeking social changes again?
One Way
So today I come to the Med, meeting a friend, Mario Hu Ning, an international student from China, studying Portuguese at Cal. He has traveled the entire United States and Brazil alone and on foot. Now, Hu is establishing a team called the Free Speech Movement Café, which will create an online Chinese magazine, “The Bear Flame”. I am very close to this team, although I am not part of them. So today Hu wants to discuss with me how to concretize the action plans based on his vision and how to manage and develop his team. Let’s take a look at the introduction and vision of the group (Of course the Chinese version is much better written than my English translation!):
Life is dear, love is dearer. Both can be given up for freedom. To commemorate the Free Speech Movement erupted at Berkeley in 1964, we create this online Free Speech Movement Café. Time flies, things have changed. Today, we, the ones who are good at observations, fond of critical thinking, keen on dialectics and dedicated to striving for freedom, gather here again. We reject hypocrisy, distortion of the truths, paresthesia to evil and adulation; we aim to strive for the emancipation of minds and freedom of speech for Chinese. We may fail, but we will be more courageous. If not now, when? If not we, who?
Implicitly, a few key themes of the Bear Flame include freedom of speech, morality capitalization and materialism, government corruption, declination of the traditional Chinese virtue among youths. Although I am sympathetic, I do not deploy the same strategy as he does. That’s why I am a friend, but not part, of them.
Not sure whether today’s meeting will become part of the legends of the Med. Nevertheless, we are all deeply influenced by the history of Berkeley and motivated by the historical moments of the Free Speech Movement.
The Other Way
I have another meet-up today with Vic, an intern in a non-governmental organization. She is currently developing a curriculum on the topic of social enterprises for a group of Japanese university students coming to the Bay Area in March 2010. She would like to discuss with me on how to construct the curriculum to enable the visiting students to “get the most out of it”. Immediately, I have the question: what does it mean by getting the most out of the curriculum. I tell Vic that if we only aim at educating the students on what’s social innovation, then they do not need to come across the Pacific Ocean. There must be some groups of people in Japan talking about the same topic. I think, besides showing them environmental, social and economic sustainability can be achieved together , we should empower them to design achievable blueprints for their own plans and provide them with pragmatic and tangible tools. Vic agrees with me, and later spends an entire afternoon with me designing workshops on project management, venture capital fundraising and organization design.
During our discussion, I am suddenly enlightened. Why are we discussing the new approaches to address social problems? What are we concerned with making things work? Why are we helping people faraway? I think, the entrepreneurial spirit and the passion for innovation have been rooted in Berkeley. They are the extension, the enhancement, the progress of the 1960’s radical social movement. Now, the ways of making social changes have changed, but the wills and enthusiasm have never left.
Now Berkeley people have walked out of the Cafés. We have developed more effective ways of making contributions to the society. We are, again, the leaders of designing, nurturing and implementing new changes.
My Departure
Departure is a mix of hope, sentiment, uncertainty, excitement. Leaving a place where I have experienced enjoyment, struggling, sadness and growth is not easy. But this journey is called the destiny. People come and people go, on the way that we do not make U turns. We need to accept the facts, make decisions and move on.
The Med has resided on 2475 Telegraph Ave for over 50 years. He must have seen doubtful new comers willing to take challenges, exciting leavers pursuing their odysseys, disappointed returnees hoping to gain some encouragements from the familiar host, and many other more. I don’t know when and how I will return, but I always know there is such an old friend backing me up. I have packed his spirit and history with me. And I will eventually become part of his spirit and history.
This post uses very intriguing language and imagery to make the reader feel like they have also entered the Cafe and taste the latte. Similes such as "It looks like an aged man" contribute to the vivid images that he creates and the use of repeated questions at the end of each section caused me to stop and think about different aspects of Berkeley. The images in the blog go perfectly with the story, beginning with a photo of an outside view of the cafe and ending with one of the framed pictures on the wall to show its history. He blends direct observations with analysis of the location and personal experiences throughout the blog, which makes it more relatable. The style is very friendly and casual like when he refers to the cafe as "the Med" and he even uses an unhappy smiley face once. This style is similar to that of Latour in Circulating Reference and the blog's section headings like "One Way," "The Other Way," and "My Departure" draw the reader along just as Latour's use of cinematic language. A prevalent theme in Circulating Reference is the idea of mapping and this blog successfully maps out the Cafe Mediterraneum from its black and white checkered floor to the homeless people that sleep outside its doors. This post is similar to my own because it is straightforward, but entertaining like when he describes how the latte's foam makes his small beard turn white. However, what I particularly enjoyed about this blog over my own is the final paragraph where he refers to the cafe as his old friend and speaks about his goal of hopefully becoming a part of its "spirit and history."
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