“Coffee: The World in Your Cup” to be on display in the University Museum

Visitors to the University Museum Feb. 13 to May 8 can get keen to the bean with the newest attraction, “Coffee: The World in Your Cup.” 

According to museum director Sue Grosboll the exhibit aims to show “the real history and impact of coffee.”  Major themes of the exhibit are history, global impact, growing process, how coffee figures into international commerce and its social character. 

The exhibit was rented from Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle. The University of Northern Iowa is not funding the exhibit. The exhibit is sponsored by Starbucks and accepts donations.  They will also be offering seminars to teach coffee brewing techniques, how to be a java connoisseur and to show various documentaries and presentations about the culture surrounding the drink. Several of these events have a $10 fee. 

Grosboll does not think the fee will drive away potential patrons.  Five hundred billion cups of coffee are consumed every year and 125 million individuals make a livelihood from business surrounding it.

“It is one of the most widely consumed legal stimulants,” Grosboll said. 

Local coffee house Cup of Joe’s manager Sarah Hertz said that she has a relatively constant flow of customers throughout the entire year. 

“It’s a great atmosphere for studying and meeting,” Grosboll said.

Coffee’s history stretches back approximately 1,000 years. Grosboll related an Ethiopian story concerning its beginnings.  It is said that a goat herder once noticed one of his goats acting much livelier than usual. He followed the goat to the plant it was grazing on.  It was eating coffee beans.   

From Ethiopia the drink spread to the Middle East, and eventually reached European countries around the 1600s.  Coffee houses throughout their history have served as gathering points for communication, revolutionaries and sedition.  In the 19th century they were considered a meeting place for English prostitutes.

Grosboll said that attitudes on coffee vary from culture to culture. There is great ceremony put into the serving of coffee in Ethiopia, for example. In Europe a good coffee is savored like a fine wine. She noted that in the U.S. people try to get coffee as quick as possible, just as a way to wake up in the morning. 

Lots of bad coffee exists in America. Grosboll offered examples such as fast food and gas station coffee, as well as the famous Folger’s brand, which she said is made of the lowest quality beans of the stock. In fact, the typical method of percolation is not the preferred fashion for a quality cup of coffee, as much of the flavor is lost. 

The exhibit is still a work in progress.  When it opens in a week, however, Grosboll said, “I hope everybody can come to our events.” 
   

 

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