Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on April 10, 2014

Chances are There's Something Jewish About Your Joe

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Four of Cups: The creator of the Anthora cup was Leslie Buck who was a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

In the Talmud (Eruvin 65b), Rabbi Ilai cleverly opines: A person is recognized by three things: their cup, their pocket, and their anger. In other words, how they handle their liquor (self control), their money (generosity), and their temper (patience). Its a lot more poetic in the Hebrew, where the three characteristics are, koso, kiso, and kaaso.

A more alliterative English translation might be, pour, pocket, and pique. Entire sermons and morality tales can be woven from this dictum, but with Passover and its four cups of wine quickly approaching, I wanted to shed a little light on some unusual Jewish connections to item #1 from this aphorism: The Cup.

Four cups of coffee is more common for many of us than four cups of wine (and not just for users of the Maxwell House haggadah), and one place where I often see peoples cups, pockets and anger-management skills come into play is standing on line at Starbucks.

Are we the wise child who chats up the barista with questions about bean origins, shade-grown vs. organic, and optimal brewing temperatures? The wicked child who snarls his order and sighs impatiently at the guy chatting up the barista? The simple child who tips generously and smiles warmly at the mother and sugar-crashing toddler behind him in line? Or the child who stands in stunned silence at the overwhelming choice of sizes, flavors, and add-ins on the menu?

No matter which child you are, when you exit Starbucks youll be carrying a cup whose iconic design is largely Jewish in origin. One of the 1971 founders of the original Starbucks, Zev Siegel, was Jewish, and in 1987 the company was bought by fellow Jew and former employee Howard Schultz, who was passionately committed to turning Starbucks from a whole-bean coffee roaster and retailer into a chain of espresso bars that served as communal gathering places like those he encountered on buying trips to Milan as Starbucks former director of marketing.

The new Starbucks logo was a merger of the original Starbucks logo and the logo for Il Giornale - Schultzs espresso bar that he opened when he couldnt convince the original Starbucks owners to focus on brewed coffee sales. Schultzs new Starbucks logo (a form of which is still in use today) featured a stylized version of the original Starbucks two-tailed mermaid (technically a Melusine), changed from brown to green to match the green circle with white block lettering and stars that was part of Schultzs original logo for Il Giornale. For many coffee drinkers, a quick sighting of the Starbucks green alone (Pantone 3298) is enough to elicit pavlovian caffeine cravings that are not easily denied.

More:

The Secret Jewish History of the Coffee Cup (Starbucks and Otherwise)

Category: Talmud
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