Coffee is Global, Culture is Local, and a Good Story is Universal

Miles Fisher
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

From as early as I could remember, I always loved stories. Bedtime stories, movies, novels, country songs. It made sense to me that the human brain understood the world around it through narrative, so I set out to be a story teller. I acted, wrote, directed, and read everything I could get my hands on. I went to college to become an English major so I could learn the nuts and bolts of story telling. That was the idea, anyway.

My very first week of college, I lost a bet to my freshman roommate and had to audition for the school’s fanciest a-capella group. It was the last thing I’d be caught dead doing, but a bet’s a bet and I figured it would only take up 10 embarrassing minutes of my life. But they kept calling me back each night as they winnowed down try-outs from a hundred guys to a half dozen. In the process, I learned that each summer the group went on a fully paid 20 Country, 6 Continent world tour. When I heard that, I figured I’d be an idiot to pass that up if I was lucky enough to get in. By some miracle, I made the group, and by the time I finished college, I had been to over 40 countries around the world.

I’ll let you in on a little secret I learned traveling the world: the best introduction to a new city isn’t through its nightlife, or its tourist attractions and marketplaces. It happens before the stores open and the tour buses start their routes.

When I visit a new place I wake up and hunt down the best coffee shop in the vicinity. That’s where a city’s story unfolds. And I love a good story.

To order a cup of coffee in a foreign land is to witness a cultural choreography and breath in local sensibilities. Subtle variations emerge: in Australia, a flat white is presented with the latest surfing reports while in Tokyo, a barista pours into handmade pottery with a flourish. Italians never sit down to take their espresso, while in Ecuador, a whole table will fill their cups with coffee dripping out of a suspended mesh bag.

I realized coffee was my cultural passport, a book with endless chapters. It was more than just a brown drink with caffeine, it was a communal conversation, a daily ritual, a clarification of ideas, a slingshot into the day. And like all good stories, coffee elicit a strong emotional response.

My experiences have taught me that coffee is global, culture is local, and a good story is universal.

My dream is to build a coffee business that uses storytelling to create community and inspire the imagination.

Founder & President of bixbycoffee.com

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