First fast food; now fast drinks. Nothing remains of the Turkishness of the coffee, its presentation and taste. There used to be a certain culture and tradition of preparation and drinking attached to Turkish coffee. You should prepare it in a special copper coffee kettle very slowly; heat the coffee cup; pour it into the cup when it comes to a boil. While serving, as part of the presentation, you should also put a glass of water and Turkish delight or a chocolate next to the coffee cup. The way the coffee is presented and the way the coffee is drunk on special days, like the special day of asking for a girl to be one's bride, religious holidays… All of this was part of Turkish culture. Fortunetelling based on Turkish coffee was a whole different story. Now, all this is becoming history. Put the coffee in the machine; hit the button; tip it into the cold cup and take it. And then call this "mixture" Turkish coffee with no feeling of embarrassment. As we keep presenting this mixture as Turkish coffee, the Greeks are becoming smarter on this matter. They have changed this coffee from Turkish coffee to Greek coffee; they also developed standards for making this coffee. Whenever Turkish coffee is mentioned in Turkey, what comes to mind is a mixture prepared in a machine, brought in a cold cup and drunk as a coffee mixture. We are neither ashamed of this nor determined to change it. In addition, we are proud of being mechanized.Let us set Turkish coffee aside. The fashion of "three-in-one" is spreading in the Turkish food market. We started this fashion with Nescafe. Coffee is presented to the consumer in a small package that includes creamer, coffee and sugar. In this way, the consumer does not have to bother minding the best mixture of coffee, creamer and sugar. Now, fruit juices in the form of "three-in-one" have also entered the market. Others with multiple fruit aromas and even vegetable flavors followed the three-in-ones. This fashion has spread to include candies. We become familiar with different and mixed flavors from our childhood years.
The trend that started with three-in-ones and continued with mixed flavors is one of the reflections of globalization in Turkey. In the global world where the genders and characters are diversified, food, including coffee and juices, is also diversified. People become diversified but they have also become lazier. Somebody else decides on the coffee or the sugar instead of you. You do not have to think about it or take any action. In the past, Turkish coffee had a special place and character; likewise, there were only men and women, with Adam and Eve being their first representatives. Is it so now? Lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, transsexual, transvestite, vitasexual, ubersexual, retrosexual, metrosexual, pomosexual, bimbosexual, himbosexual… and many others. In the past, characters and diversities were minimal. There were either men who could be trusted or characters you could not rely on. Now there are daily, weekly characters.
Behavioral templates change depending on time and situation. The stance of your relative or friend changes depending on your place, time, situation, status, financial situation and power. Society gives you a special place if you hold a powerful status or financial power, even if you are a fraud. Is this not the case in political views? In the past, you were either leftist or rightist. You would be exiled, lose your job or family to defend your views; you would go to jail, be wounded and even die. Is it so now? The globalized Turkish life is forced to become "three-in-one": private life, business life and politics.
I never liked the three-in-one coffees. I do not like the Turkish coffee prepared in a machine or the mixed fruit juices either. Let us not hesitate to drink orange juice in Turkey. Let us not put pressure on those who drink grapefruit juice. Those who want to should be able to consume three-in-one. But not all of us have to consume three-in-ones. Let us not forget; democracy is the culture of ability to stand differences and the weak.
