Move Over Starbucks: Israel’s “Upside Down” Coffee Saga
Posted by TheShot on 31 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Starbucks
In the April 6 edition of Zeek (”a Jewish journal of thought and culture”), author Esther Solomon writes a brief overview of espresso consumption in Israel: Zeek | Move Over Starbucks: Israel’s “Upside Down” Coffee Saga | Esther Solomon.
Included in her article:
- Israeli tastes have evolved from the Frappuccino-like café barad to the more recent café hafuch, meaning ‘upside-down coffee’ in Hebrew, which is a general shorthand for all espresso and frothed milk-based drinks
- Israeli café society: its roots, how it has become the target of suicide bombers, and how café owners have taken to adding security surcharges
- Israel looked to Italy, not the U.S., when their consumer espresso obsession took off in the 1990s. So when Starbucks arrived with much fanfare in 2001, the public derided its coffee as “mop water”. Starbucks lost millions, their aggressive growth plans for Israel were deemed a complete failure, and Starbucks ceased Israeli operations by 2003.
- A few Israeli coffee chains are seeking growth overseas, including Arcaffe’s branch in Paris and plans from Cafeneto and Ilan’s
1 Comment »
on 06 Jul 2006 at 4:34 pm -05:00T 1.TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Israeli coffee chain coming to NY said …
[...] As referenced here in a previous article, Israel knows a little about espresso — and some of that is making its way overseas. One of the stories in New York City this week is the arrival of Aroma Espresso Bar: Israeli coffee chain coming to NY - Travel from Israel, Ynetnews. [...]