COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS & MORE / THE COVID-19 EFFECT ON COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE

BEFORE COVID

The Coffeehouse effect is a recent trend concerning people who go to coffeehouses to study or work productively. It is a recent phenomenon, born within the new century and widespread to workers and students. 

The main reasons of its birth are, on one hand, a more flexible work generation, characterized by the fact that workers don’t own an office anymore and they need a space to work. On the other hand, the phenomenon has developed due to the lack of studying spaces in universities, which have seen an increase among the enrolled students, who had to face this problem by looking for different spaces to study and meet for group-work: they found in coffeehouses a productive space to work for their projects and study. 

Furthermore, the diffusion of this phenomenon has generated a series of studies from sociologists to psychologists, who investigated the phenomenon from a cultural and social point of view, discovering that background sounds, or having people around can increase one's brain productivity–Wikipedia. 

AFTER COVID—By Jennifer Ferreira--Coffee shops had become important places in many people’s lives, for some as a place to get a caffeine fix on the way to work, for others as a place to gather and meet friends, or as a place to work. 

In a previous research project I explored how coffee shops were important community spaces in the urban landscape. But this landscape has been completely transformed by COVID-19. The pandemic forced coffee shops to close, or shift their business to a greater focus on takeaway and online sales. 

And coffee consumers, suddenly with much more time at home, shifted their consumption patterns too. 

For the rest of Coventry University’s article “Coffee, coronavirus and the uncertain future of high street café culture” CLICK HERE.

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WEEKLY COFFEE QUIZ--Where in the world is this coffee establishment? Answer next Saturday in PillartoPost.org Coffee Beans & Beings post.

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LAST WEEK’S COFFEE QUIZ ANSWER. Mansons Lot is an Aussie style coffee house/café in the heart of bustling Hong Kong (G/F, Yen May Bldg. 15 Swatow St., Wan Chai) serves coffee roasted by master roaster Sam Gabrielian in Sydney, which has won Australia’s Best Espresso in 2010-11-12 then the beans are flown to Hong Kong.