Let us all face it. Coffee must be the most prized commodity in the Philippines. Forget about Great Taste or (my favorite coffee for the grassroots) Blend 45. I am talking about those Php 45 (US$0.90) per wee cup of capuccino.
I know that it might cost more in first-world countries in terms of the US dollar but Php 45 here in the Philippines is half a fortune (even though technically, it doesn’t cost much but given the salary rates here, it’s a fifth of the minimum wage).
Ice blended coffee falls under the Php 120 ( US$2.40) price range. Half of the minimum wage for a 16 ounce glass of mocha frap. Good heavens!
When in US, bums can enter Starbucks, in the Philippines, only rich kids and wannabe rich kids hang out in them. Is it only in the Philippines where a notebook or a laptop computer is the license to hang out in Starbucks for a couple of hours. That and pseudo-intellectual conversation by the artsy-fartsy types. Oh yes, also mind the pimping and the 5 seconds of fame whenever they call out “Suluwesi for Alex!”
In any case, my point in this rant is the differing premiums that people give things across cultures. Much like bananas are here and in Japan. Here, a bunch of bananas is roughly about Php 20. In Japan, that same bunch is four times as much in its value in peso.
To some extent we can see that there is value and premium assigned to something exotic. And it seems to be human nature for us to exoticize the unfamiliar.
What can be inferred in this differences in points-of-view on values and premiums (premia?) is how we assign different meanings. These in turn, affect how we assign meanings to certain concepts. A Starbucks logo can mean “coffee” in the US while here, Starbucks or Seattle’s Best are status symbols.
Hype stripped of it all, all you end up drinking in Starbucks is just coffee – a mixture of coffee been extract – much like the same chemicals in the small puch of Great Taste or Blend 45 coffee. So what’s the difference between muffins and capuccino and pan de sal and kapeng barako when both just mainly involve flour and caffeine?
Sure, there’s the flavor and taste. In Filipino there’s the statement “Lamang tiyan din yan.” (“They both end up in your stomach, anyway.”) Not really much difference. But mostly differences lie in the nuances we assign to them through our value systems.
Okay, enough for now, my Nescafe’s getting cold.
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