Paying my due respects to Ithaca's Gimme Coffee

There is a question that seems to come up frequently in dinner conversations about life outside of North America - "What food do you miss most when you are away?"

I've often struggled to answer this question since I'm typically very content with the foods served in the places I've lived in Africa, Latin America and most recently the Caribbean. I kind of pride myself in my flexibility when it comes to food. Rice, beans, maize/corn, sweet potatoes and green leafy veggies have become staples in my US diet. I am a bit of a peanut butter snob, preferring the "natural" type, but that's often more available than the processed stuff in the places I go. (Haiti actually has an amazing "spicy" type of peanut butter with red pepper added to it. You will be hearing a lot more about Haitian peanut butter in the days to come as it plays an important role in my research intervention)

With a little creativity in the kitchen and/or the willingess to pay ridiculous prices at the import grocery stores found in all big cities including Nairobi and Port-au-Prince, I can usually satisfy the occasional craving I have for good chocolate or tortilla chips and salsa. Good ice cream is usually a tough one and probably ranked highest on my "most missed" list until....I moved to Ithaca and discovered Gimme Coffee.

I really don't have the words to describe the attachment I've developed over the last year or so to Gimme's "Leftist" roast. It gets me out of bed in the morning. It has changed me from an occassional latte indulger to a pretty strict americano drinker - just so I can have more of that fantastic coffee flavor (thank you Maggie S.). I don't care that the baristas at one of the Gimme branches in Ithaca are frequently snobbish and aloof - something that would keep me from frequenting other establishments. I would have gladly joined in a sit-in to protest the removal of the Gimme coffee trailer on our quad if the newly-opened library cafe hadn't agreed to serve Gimme roasts and to have Gimme train their baristas.

Over my 6 weeks in Haiti this summer I had a foretaste of what it will be like to live without Gimme in the coming year. While I mean no disrespect to Haitian coffee, there was just something "not right" in my mornings. Only when I came back to Ithaca did I realize what it was....no Leftist roast.

You are probably wondering why I am being so meldoramatic. Can't I just carry a couple pounds of my perferred beans to Port-au-Prince with me? I could....but have decided against it. Haiti produces coffee beans - good coffee beans. Haiti should be making good money by growing and exporting coffee. With the complexities of a globalized food system, they are not.

I can buy Haitian coffee in Haiti and so I will. I won't carry my beans from Ithaca - beans that already crossed continents at least once on their way to upstate NY. It's a small step towards supporting a local food system but it's a step I feel morally obliged to take.

In the mean time, I am using a new metric to count down days these last few weeks in Ithaca - Gimmee cups. I have at least 20 cups to go.... better get drinking!