Needless to say, coffee is one of the leading drink which collects a bunch of lovers from across this planet. Of course, everyone has his/her own story of why loving coffee. It is a blessing to be a coffee lover in a land which is famous for its quality of coffee bean, Aceh. One district of the province known as Gayo high land located in Central Aceh is the house of the best coffee production in Indonesia. In regard to this, Acehnese people, most of them, really enjoy drinking their coffee in coffee shops. If you ever visit Aceh, you will find coffee shops are scattered in every nook, both in towns and countrysides. On this page, on the brink of the newyear 2018, I intend to concisely describe how the coffee shops show their power to survive in Acehnese hearts.
Some reasons are surmised to be the causes of the immense growth of coffee shops in Aceh. I come from Lhokseumawe, a town located 5-hour drive from Banda Aceh. Barely can I see even only once coffee shop abandoned in Aceh not patronised by subscribers. This also happens in other towns of Aceh such as Bireuen, Langsa, Sigli, Banda Aceh, and so on. Some elders said it has been an Acehnese local wisdom to serve coffee for their guests. With this on mind, Acehnese interest in coffee has brought about the rise of coffee shops business over time. People not only drink coffee at their homes but also make an appointment in coffee shops while drinking coffee. Also, drinking coffee may strengthen friendship amid people in our community. This based on the fact that someone who is offered a cup of coffee tends not to inconvenience the giver by refusing; as a result, they should take the coffee to indicate their humility. Another cause is that coffee helps the ones who need to be awake at late at night due to some necessities, such as finishing homework or workplace task.
Since coffee shops have got through long epoch to keep existing, formerly they have particular functions recognised by adults not kids of today. During my childhood, I habitually went to my grandfather’s village where I could see coffeeshops in every rural junction. It was such a typical that villagers invariably chose coffee shops as the place to meet friends. Unlike today, coffeeshops in the past mainly functions as the place to drink coffee, listen to the radio, or watch TV. The elders who ever lived this era would bear in mind those functions of coffee shops, not more.
The rise of coffee shops has garnered many youngsters’ interest to spend their time in the places while adults would assume some negative perspectives about this rise. There are so many youngsters visiting coffee shops in that the elders said they are unemployed ones. Not once did I hear the elders also associate the coffee drinkers with lazy people since they are assumed to only waste their time in vain by chitchatting with their friends while drinking coffee within hours every day. Lamentably, youngsters who spend time in coffee shops more likely to be accused as non-religious persons because all of them, both female and male ones, gather there in unseparated seats and tables and skip times of praying. Yet, I do not in any way blame those insights of the elders since were I one of them I would say so.
Given such incorrect views, I would say that the functions of coffee shops now have been varied so massively. Some office workers sometimes hold seminars in coffee shops. Youth organisation members are also observed to prefer coffee shops as places for meetings discussing programmes and evaluating their progress. Moreover, the coffee shops attracts the subscribers by providing internet connection for free. Internet is used to access a broad range of online library, browse a great amount of latest information, and communicate with people somewhere on unknown parts of the earth. I myself could successfully finish my thesis by the blessing of some coffee shops’ facilities, not in libraries. In coffee shops, some friends of mine do their works such as translating files, preparing instructional materials, blogging, vlogging, and so forth. More intriguingly, many university lecturers hold their college classes in coffee shops as one lecturer of mine. Moreover, I and my comrades in Polyglot Indonesia hold free language class in some coffee shops. We do not force the learners to attend classroom where they feel it is more cosy to be in coffee shops. Coffeeing which is habitually considered as something aimless can informally be a schooling only if we know how to transform it, therefore.
However, negative sides of the rise of coffee shops are there. Scarcely can be witnessed any friendly communication between in large scale of groups of people sitting in the coffee shops as witnessed in the past. People of the past make the coffee shops as an open space that you can talk dan greet warmly everyone either you know them or not. Today, such friendly greeting only happen exclusively in small groups of people who know each other. Another black side is that though there are some people make use positively of the coffee shops, there are many those who waste their productive time aimlessly all day long in coffee shops by ordering only a cup of coffee so that they can have the password of the coffee shops’ Network connection.
In sum, coffee shops have become very pervasive of any possibility of being multifunctional. Despite there are some negative sides of their rise, coffee shops have more positive sides when used prudently.
Jeulingke, 30 December 2017
