Coffee in the Inner Sphere and Periphery

Coffee is a luxury. Not just a fancy thing, but a high-end luxury. You sit at home sipping on a “hot cup of joe”, and you don’t think that it not longer is the “drink of the common man”. Coffee comes from old Terra originally. Specifically, from the continent of Africa, but it was cultivated everywhere it could be. Those original flavors like “Arabica”, “Java” and “Columbian” you can get sometimes from other worlds, but the real stuff? It will cost you an arm and a leg to import. I literally sold a ‘Mech during my recent trip to Terra and filled the ‘Mech bay and associated cargo with bags of the stuff, frozen in cargo units to keep. This was stillcheaper than importing the stuff.

Not to say there aren’t “offworld” plantations as well. During the Star League era, a few worlds were dedicated to the growing of coffee and its cousin, chocolate. Wars were fought over these worlds, believe it or not. Well, at least, they would be wars nowadays. Back then, they were “intense border conflicts with temporary hot zones”. Love the SLDF double-speak. The fact “coffee” was part of the standard ration of the SLDF forced it to be produced in quantities underheard of. The Azami people in the Combine do “tea ceremonies” using coffee instead, did you know that? Crazy.

The coffee tree is one of the most genetically modified crops in the Inner Sphere and beyond. The Clan made 16 specific varieties of coffee trees to grow on some of their more resource poor and more strained worlds. You have coffee strains which grow underground and tastes like mushrooms. You have coffee plants which can grow in cold to freezing climate, like on Gangtok. Stuff tastes like wet socks mixed with ‘Mech coolant. But it is coffee and packs the necessary elements. Namely, caffeine. That’s the stuff we buy coffee for, in the end. Some of the better “alternatives” of coffee were done by Rastaban Agricultural and planted on various worlds on the Rasalhague/Lyran/Combine border region. The Rastaban Coffee is lighter than “true Terran” one, but it is much cheaper.

Corporate investment in coffee is massive, so is transporting the damn stuff. The Nabob company bought itself out of their head company during the early space age era by being able to plant the stuff on more worlds than any other. They got rich enough they bought a fleet of JumpShips, and then DropShips. Even when the Succession Wars were raging, nobody would stop the Nabob ships from bringing goods to a world. You think a ComStar interdiction is bad? Imagine your entire military not having coffee. That’s how you get a Coup d’Etat done. They’re based off Terra still nowadays, so them being friends with ComStar probably helped that as well…

Folgers was slower to the game and didn’t leave Earth until McKenna politely asked people to stop bitching. They’re the ones who got the “coffee worlds” system going, however, and they made bank on this. When the Succession Wars struck, a lot of those worlds became more typical agricultural worlds or were nuked from orbit. Either or, the Successor States didn’t care back then. This did piss Folgers off, so they put a lot of their money where their mouth is. Their private security force is one of the scariest one in the Inner Sphere nowadays, especially after they struck a deal with Clan Ghost Bear in 3086. They own 2 warships. That’s more than most small states in the Inner Sphere. They hide on Tukayyid nowadays, making tons of money off the plantations on that world specifically, as it grows “original Java” with a very similar taste profile.

Lavazza is an odd one. They run most of the coffee shops in the Lyran Commonwealth and grow the stuff in amounts nearly unheard of on core worlds near Tharkad. Their CEO is a higher noble in the damn Lyran political system, and own 2 regiments of BattleMechs in the regular military. That’s not counting their actual private security services. All the top mercenary commanders in the Inner Sphere were sponsored by Lavazza in the past. You have pictures of Jaime Wolf and Morgan Kell drinking a cup in their Archers, with a Lavazza logo on the tumbler. They make both the great stuff, the good stuff and the freeze-dried terrible stuff soldiers are used to drink.

Now, for the crazy one. Tim Horton’s was a coffee shop brand on old Terra, named after some ice hockey player. When the first colonies happened, they ran off with Antonin Marik and settled the world of Marik. They wanted to save on shipping cost, so they did start planting stuff on Marik. “Marik” flavor is now associated directly with Tim Horton directly. Woody, with a tinge of wine flavor. Odd, but tastes good but is now crazy expensive as it only grows on Marik. “Timmy HoHo” is now the most fancy and expensive coffee house and brand in the Inner Sphere. With the Clan Protectorate running it now, who knows what will happen there.

I love coffee. I really do. My wife is mad that a serious portion of my cash goes to buying the good stuff rather than the cheap stuff. She is used to the cheap stuff being from the Clan military. My parents were upper middle-class FedSuns citizen, who spent good money on the stuff in the past. You can tell where someone is from by what coffee they drink.

• Captain Etienne Siroix, Flanagan Repair and Refits, 3155.