ABSTRACT
This chapter centers on the educational aspect of the coffee experience and analyzes its consumption as a form of symbolic communication about taste. Specifically, it discusses how the brand acquires its relevance with the local consumer through “coffee education” and looks at the manner in which trust, affection, and brand community emerge around the coffee experience. Through coffee, I explore the process in which taste is constructed and acquired and the manner in which it is translated into cultural capital. I relate the “coffee education” enacted by coffee brands to other forms of consumer education existing in Japanese society and discuss its gendered nature. I then place the case of Starbucks in a wider framework to discuss how contemporary consumption accommodates both expressions of authority and mechanisms of consumer empowerment.
