Coffee: Bread and Wine

by Paul Smith


The reasons why I am fascinated with coffee can be looked at through the lens of the Holy Eucharist. I have always been intrigued by the Eucharist (I grew up in the Episcopal tradition), and it never ceases to challenge me, engage me, and encourage me. It represents that fulcrum from which I can move. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again - as the liturgy affirms.

The importance of the physical in the Eucharist

The physicality of the Eucharist has struck me with growing profundity over the past few years. For most of Christendom the focus has been placed on the spiritual and heavenly side of the meal, which I have no intent on devaluing or supplanting. One could argue that the metaphysical aspects are the keystone of not only the Eucharist but of our affirmation as Christians. The bread is not simply bread and the wine is not simply wine; Christ was and is fully God, not simply another man.

Yet, the more I have ruminated over the importance of the Eucharist, I always come back to how earthly and, dare I say, animalistic it is. Jesus said, 'Eat this bread' and 'drink this wine' to remember me. Eating? And Drinking? Why not some transcendent practice that distinguishes us from the banalities of plants and animals? And the items are nothing more than bread and wine.

Now here is where I hope to affirm a dichotomy within the elements of the Eucharist. Bread is body and wine is blood. The body is the epitome of this earth and is destined to return to the earth. Blood represents a higher reality, an eternal and salvific one. Blood cleanses and saves.* The body dies. One element stresses the importance of our mortality (earth) and the other points to that in us which goes on past this finite life (heaven). Heaven and earth collide in the meal and elements of the Passover, the Last Supper, and, in turn, the Eucharist.**

It should be noted that both bread and wine require our hands. Jesus did not choose a piece of wheat and a grape. He wanted the elements of the His remembrance to be items that demanded human interaction. Wheat needs a baker and grapes needs a vintner. The Eucharist is both a gift to accept and a process to join.

My daily Eucharist

Roasting, preparing and learning about coffee is a place where I find the presence and the realities of the Eucharist come to life in my day-to-day activities. That which I find beautiful in the Eucharist, I find beautiful in coffee. It is a product of the earth, yet begs to be altered.

Coffee's current cultural relevance is similar to what wine was in the biblical times: a daily, ritualized communal act. Now, with the proliferation of the 'fast food'
mentality of consumption this is a fading reality. So when I mention coffee consumption, I am referring to a bit older and slower way of doing things. Sitting, sipping, with people. The traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, which has an entire process of roasting, grinding and brewing in a pot over an open flame displays that which I am referring to. It is typically an after dinner occasion, shared with family and friends, which allows for the continuation of conversation and the time for one to be thankful for what one has. The last of the three cups one drinks is aptly called blessing.

When coffee traveled from Ethiopia, it's birthplace, it was quickly adopted by Muslims in Southern Arabia and used during religious and social occasions. In fact, the name 'coffee' is derived from the Arabic name quahwa***, which is a reference to wine. Coffee's cultural legacy and etymological roots are tied to wine drinking (although coffee came on to the scene only in recent history).

Coffee, wine and tea have all been and continue to be be beverages that in different cultures conjure up notions of the supernatural and yet are composed completely of natural elements. They point to that which is high/holy and yet are firmly rooted in that which is lowly/earthly.

I could keep pontificating on these points, but I will resist. The heart of my interest is this: how can I take the daily and the tangible and use it as a reminder of the sanctity of this life? Bread and wine remain the elements Jesus desires us to use as the rememberence of His body and blood and of His redemptive hand in this world. The Eucharist, and in turn coffee, remind me that I am redeemed, yet my feet are still firmly planted on this earth.

Coffee is simply a reminder for me of the the Eucharist and, therefore, importance of what Jesus did, is doing, and will do.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

***Paul Smith is responsible for this contribution. He is a coffee roaster and entrepreneur who lives in Winston-Salem, NC. Paul's thoughts are informed by impeccable coffee knowledge sculpted by his research and also time lived in Ethopia. His company is Just Ground Coffee.***

*Some might think this analogy strange or far-fetched. With the traditional Jewish understanding blood signified life (hence they removed it from animals that
they ate). As it says in Leviticus: "Because the life of every animal is [in] his blood." (17:14) After the first murder, The blood of Abel 'cried' to God. Blood
(and wine) turn up again and again signifying life, and more specifically that which is holy, mystical and eternal. Need I mention any NT references about the blood of Jesus?

**Do the elements of the Eucharist overturn the idea that has perpetually penetrated religion that: Earth=bad? Is there a new litmus test for that which is holy and that which is profane?

***Some assert that the name coffee comes from the name of a region in Ethiopia: Kaffa. While it has phonetic resemblence, there is little historical or etymological foundation for that claim.