International Coffee Day: A culturally caffeinated guide

Happy International Coffee Day, a day dedicated to the promotion and celebration of that magic varnish remover that gives you the jolt you so badly need in the morning to get you through the day.

Whether you like it black, au lait, iced, or like several members of the Euronews Culture team, are partial to a café bombón (a shot of coffee with condensed milk at the bottom), coffee takes centre stage on most days. That said, the International Coffee Organization wishes to not only champion Go Juice but to promote fair trade coffee.

This year, it’s all about “embracing collaboration for collective action,” as the organisation highlights the often unseen collaboration that brings us our favourite cup: “On International Coffee Day 2024, join us in celebrating the power of collaboration by drinking a cup of coffee and telling everyone what coffee means to you in our shared journey.”

Euronews Culture is doing just that with our very own journey that anyone can take – a cultural guide to drinking coffee. So, while you’re enjoying your very own Frapper’s Delight, consider the following music, films, series, books, snacks and facts that can potentialise your cup.

Best song to listen to with your coffee: Otis Redding – ‘Cigarettes and Coffee’

An oldie but a goodie. Plus, everything is a good excuse to listen to the soul legend. Released in 1966, this beautifully simple but effective song about a man and a woman chatting over late-night coffee and cancer sticks is tailormade for enjoying your jitter juice – at whatever time of day.

“It’s early in the morning / About a quarter til three / I’m sitting here talking with my baby / Over cigarettes and coffee.”

Essentially an ode to the simple things in life and how we need to remember to enjoy what some foolishly dismiss as trivial, the song is also about that moment when you realise there’s nowhere else you’d rather be.

“And I’ve got you / And you’ve got me / And we’ll have each other / And we don’t, we don’t want nothing but joy, y’all / Nothing but joy,” concludes the song. A coincidence that joy is indirectly equated to coffee? We think not.

Best song to listen to with your coffee – Pt 2: Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Espresso’

There are so many coffee songs out there – you wouldn’t begrudge us a second pick, would you?

From Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Black Coffee’ to Bob Dylan’s ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ via Blur’s ‘Coffee & TV’ and The Beastie Boys’ ‘Intergalactic’ (“I like my sugar with coffee and cream!”), the options for our second pick were numerous and difficult. But it’s 2024, and considering that our first pick was a classic from the 60s, we thought we’d keep it timely.

Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song is one of the most streamed tracks of the year, and it deserves its inclusion on this list. After all, no song in recent memory has done for coffee what ‘Espresso’ has – on top of reminding everyone that it’s not ‘expresso’.

The summer earworm could be interpreted as equating that feeling of being so attracted to someone to the addictive and sleepless state caused by caffeine. At least that’s what we’re going with.

Best film to watch with your coffee: Coffee and Cigarettes

Could it have been anything else?

Sure, we could have picked Heat, with that infamous diner coffee tête à tête between De Niro and Pacino; there’s Holly Golightly drinking from that takeaway coffee cup in the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s; the scene in Pulp Fiction when Jules is impressed with Jimmy’s “gourmet” coffee; or Will Ferrell’s Jacobim Mugatu throwing his foamy latte all over Todd in one of the best (and most homoerotic) scenes in Zoolander… But Jim Jarmusch’s superb 2003 anthology film can’t be beaten.

It’s a series of 11 comedic sketches which share coffee and cigarettes as a common thread. Starring Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Cate Balnchett, Bill Murray, GZA, RZA and The White Stripes, this quirky and unexpectedly poetic film (especially when Mahler gets played) is the ideal viewing companion with your Cuppa Joe. And before you accuse us of being sponsored by a cigarette company, considering our first song pick, we assure you we haven’t sold out. Yet.

Best series to watch with your coffee: Twin Peaks

Watch any David Lynch film, and you’ll quickly notice that food always has symbolic importance. Nowhere is this more blatant than in his seminal TV show Twin Peaks.

From cherry pies to doughnuts, that baguette-administered state of bliss that sends Ben Horne into Proustian ecstasy and the mysterious Garmonbozia, everyone is obsessed with food. And it always means something.

Much like asparagus is a harbinger of doom in the series, representing the death of innocence and the dissolution of the family unit, coffee plays an important and frequent role in the show – a far more positive one. It leads Agent Cooper to utter the immortal celebration of coffee that is: “That’s a damn fine cup of coffee” (which he prefers “black like a moonless night”).

Coffee becomes not only the ultimate symbol of goodness but also about the appreciation of life’s simple pleasures. As Coop tells Harry: “I’m going to let you in on a little secret: every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it; don’t wait for it; just let it happen. It could be a new shirt in a men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black, coffee.” 

In Twin Peaks, food and coffee has a direct correlation to the virtue of characters, and our hero Cooper’s childish wonderment when he indulges in pies and sips the perfect cup of Java The Hutt is a quasi-religious experience for him, and essentially the epitome of integrity and kindness.

Lynch has never hidden his own personal love for coffee: he’s reportedly a 20 a day man, and once launched his very own coffee brand. For him, coffee seems to be an experience and for his characters, a way to be present in the moment. To come full circle, it’s no surprise that Otis Redding features on the soundtrack of Season 3…

Best series to watch with your coffee – Pt 2: Friends

Much like Cooper’s love of coffee reveals a curious man who enjoys the moment, connection and community, coffee serves as the great unifier in the hit 90s show Friends. It’s basically the seventh friend, who gathers our six favourite New Yorkers in Central Perk.

Quite how they could spend that much time in the fictional coffeehouse with full-time jobs is still a mystery… And how in Regina Phalange’s good name they could afford to spend that much money on coffee as well as keep up the rent on those apartments is also quite the headscratcher.

However, coffee plays an important role in the 10 seasons and 236 episodes of the show, highlighting the importance of social connections and stressing how a communal experience is a soothing moment of conviviality, one that can make life’s troubles seem trivial – even if just for a few moments.

Coffee also gave viewers one of the most underappreciated lines in the show: Phoebe’s then squeeze Roger, a psychiatrist, sits in Central Perk and dishes his candid thoughts on the group of mates: “This kind of co-dependent, emotionally stunted, sitting in your stupid coffee house with your stupid big cups which, I’m sorry, might as well have nipples on them, and you’re like all ‘Oh, define me! Define me! Love me, I need love!”

There’s someone who needed more coffee. Decaf though. Hold the nipples.

Best book to read with your coffee: “Before The Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This 2015 novel by Japanese author Toshikazu Kawagushi tells the story of a café in Tokyo, Funiculi Funicula, that allows its customers to time travel and interact with people form their past, including dead loved ones, or even poeple in the future. They can do this from one specific seat in the café and only for the duration of a cup of coffee.

Specifically, they have to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.

Whether it’s a businesswoman who tries to repair her relationship with her ex-boyfriend; a customer trying to find a lost letter from her husband; a man attempting to talk with his sister; or one of the café owners who endeavours to talk to her unborn daughter, this gorgeous and poetic book has a simple but resonant message: the past is the past, while the future remains open to all possibilities. It asks the question: ‘How do you choose to spend your time?’ With coffee being the one (necessary) constant. The ends justify the beans.

Best coffee table book to browse with your coffee: “Crap Taxidermy” by Kat Su

96 pages of spectacularly bad attempts at taxidermy. And it gets funnier with each page flick.

Kat Su is also the creator of the website Crappy Taxidermy, and we warn you – once you’re on there, it’s hard to stop scrolling.

Best snack to have with your coffee: Hard cheeses

Coffee goes with everything – scrambled eggs, bacon, doughnuts, bagels, pancakes, chocolate, fruit of all kinds and sizes… And who could forget the dependable biscuit or biscotti…

Tapioca or rice pudding works too, especially when you add some vanilla or cinnamon to the mix, as those flavours go well with a dark roast coffee.

But did you know that coffee and hard cheeses make for the perfect pairing? Whether it’s aged Swiss cheese, a mature cheddar or a fruitier tomme des Aravis, when you combine strong coffee with a nice slice of intense-tasting cheese, it’s a combination for the ages – one which unearths hitherto unappreciated aromas and levels to the curd.

Bean there, done that? Good for you. If not, try it out sometime.

By sometime, we mean today.

Best recipe to make when you’re done drinking coffee: Espresso meringata

Once you’re done with your cup of Espresso Patronum and have made good on our cheese recommendation, the options are endless if you fancy another kick of coffee.

Desserts are your go-to: coffee cake, tiramisu, coffee brownies, torta, cofee crème brulée… But for our money, get thee baking an espresso meringata. It’s a decadent meal-ender with layers of meringue and softened coffee gelato, all topped with caramel sauce and some crushed coffee beans scattered on top…

If you’re salivating right now, you’re only human.

Best facts to know about coffee

There are quite a few, but here are 10 of our favourites: 

1. Coffee was discovered in the 1500s by goat herders, who noticed the animals eating the fruit and getting all riled up, dancing and unable to sleep. And yes, we say fruit. Because…  

2. Coffee beans aren’t beans – they’re the pit of a fruit, the coffee cherry. 

3. The word “coffee” comes from the Arabic word “qahwah”, which referred to a type of wine. The word became “khave” (used by Ottoman Turks) and then “koffie” from the Dutch.  

4. Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. Native to Indonesia, the coffee is roasted after being eaten, digested and pooped out by the Palm Civet – a musang native to southeast Asia. Because it’s naturally fermented through the animal’s intestines, and therefore has a distinctive flavour, genuine Kopi Luwak beans will set you back about €540 per 0.50kg.  

5. It’s not just David Lynch who loves his brew – Beethoven was apparently obsessed and used to count each bean that went into his coffee. The ideal number per cup for the composer? Reportedly 60.

6. Brazil may grow the most, but it’s the Netherlands which consumes the most coffee in the world, followed by Finland and Sweden. Speaking of which…

7. Coffee was once banned in the 18th century by Sweden, as the government thought it stimulated radical thinking.

8. The first home espresso machine was invented in 1938 by Italian inventor Achille Gaggia – think of him today.

9. In 2023, the world consumed 173.1 million bags of coffee.

10. If you count, Phoebe is the character in Friends who downs the most cups of liquid gold. Now you know.

Happy International Coffee Day!