Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Caffeine and Justice in Durham N.C.

My travels take me to some strange places.  Not always geographically strange, sometimes culturally so.

Durham North Carolina is an unusual place politically.  It is in the middle of a conservative, Old South state but is an island of progressive politics and culture.  Like minded young people including friends of ours move there for this reason.  Oh, probably the milder winters help too.

So one morning I found myself at a coffee tasting session at a conspicuously progressive coffee roasting company.  Quite the crowd had gathered.  Many of the men had those odd little "man bun" hair styles.  Mine was the only un-ironic beard in the place.



This is the master flavor chart.  It seemed pretty elaborate for plain old coffee.

North Carolina had previously been the center of a very odd political controversy regarding bathroom use.  I won't try to explain it to my non US readers.  But of course we find this:



But you know what?  The coffee was tasty.  We had a nice tour of the roasting area where the employees were all serious about coffee and pleasant to chat with.  There was an American flag hanging over head and I think it was also non - ironic.

Grey of beard as I am I feel I can offer the occasional comment on the frivolity of modern America.  Sometimes it is not just young people but our rather young culture that seems a bit silly at times.  But on the important matters of the day we can still agree.  A cup of good coffee and the American flag displayed in a respectful but not intrusive fashion.  Durham may be an unusual part of America but American it is.

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