Open Writing

Here I am in this sparkling new shopping mall, sipping a large latte coffee.

Savouring it, drop by drop, while trying not to count the cost.

This mug of refreshing fluid cost £2.15. That’s 43 shillings in old English money.

Of course, I shouldn’t be thinking in “old’’ money. We’re in the 21st Century. Decimal coinage is all that the majority of Brits have ever known. Pounds, shillings, and pence are ancient history.

But memories linger on. And £2.15 was more than half a week’s wage for me when I started out as a weekly newspaper reporter nearly 50 years ago.

OK. Bury the memories. I’m back in decimal. I’ve rejoined the modern age.

And £2.15 still seems a lot to pay for a cup of coffee!

You can get a pint of good English beer for less than that.

But despite the high costs of a flavourful cuppa, we Brits are enthusiastically becoming members of the international coffee culture.

Four out of five of us visit a coffee shop at least once a week. One in five are daily coffee shop customers.

In 1999 there were 778 big-name coffee bars (Starbucks, Costa Coffee, etc) in Britain. Now there are 2.300 - and the growth rate is picking up speed.

For the past four years cappuccinos were the first choice for British coffee drinkers.

Now it’s lattes - and you can definitely count me in the latte brigade. All that froth on top of a cappuccino… Sometimes it seems you only get a thimbleful of stuff that you can actually drink.

But even when it’s a drink-from-top-to-bottom latte, I think British coffee drinkers are being ripped off. Particularly at £2.15 a cup.

The cost of the ingredients of a cup of coffee can only amount to a few pennies. A small spoonful of ground coffee, milk, water…

I suppose we are paying for the ambience of a high street or shopping mall coffee bar: forking out a regular admission fee to a modern lifestyle.

And I am most certainly a sit, sip, chat and watch the world go by kind of guy.

Of course I draw the line at remembering the new coffee bar terminology. A skinny ¾ a latte made with non-fat or skimmed milk. A harmless ¾ a decaffeinated espresso. A no-fun ¾ decaf non-fat latte.

But sitting and sipping is my kind of life.

I don’t understand folk who eat and drink on the run: folk who nibble take-away sandwiches at lunchtimes while bustling up and down the busy streets of my home town.

Eating on the hoof is for cows and horses. Humans should take in food, and drink, while sitting down, at a table.

Coffee bars encourage us to slow down, take life at an easier pace.

As you sit there in the mall, sipping your latte, while the rest of the world mills around you in a shopping frenzy, you find that something amazing is happening.

You are…thinking.

You’re not rushing. You’re not making decisions.

You are turning your brain loose. Giving it chance to float and soar…

While listening to a BBC radio programme this weekend I heard a terrible fact. The average American works 360 hours a year more than the average Britain. That’s the equivalent of an extra nine weeks’ work a year.

Poor America!

Now I understand why the modern coffee bar culture grew up there. The only time they ever get to think and relax is during their daily 15 minutes of latte sipping. Then…back to the grindstone.

What Britain needs is more coffee shops.

Increasingly longer time spent in coffee shops.

And latte at no more than £1 a cup.