Jonah Norwitt

Virtual Ethnographic Field Research Methods

June 30, 2020

 

Fieldnotes: Making Coffee

 

 

I interviewed Bryan at 3 pm EST, June 30, 2020 on how he makes coffee at home.  The interview was over Facetime, with him using his phone and me using my computer.  Bryan has been my roommate throughout my two years at UChicago.  Throughout those years, he has consistently spent a significant amount of time studying and doing work.  He has been drinking caffeine throughout that time, and has switched between black coffee, coffee with milk, and tea.

 

 

Direct Observations                                 Personal Reactions

 

Stumbling around looking for stuff I was confused what was happening because he had the camera pointed at himself rather that at the counter where he was looking for parts.
Holds up glass jar of coffee beans with red plastic lid.  Has a smile and seems kind of amused, which continued throughout the interview Beans looked red in the lighting
picks up coffee beans with his hand I found it amusing that he doesn’t measure at all and just goes in with his hand
Opens lid of black (Mr. Coffee) coffee grinder and fills up grinder – 2/3 handfuls, he doesn’t measure I’ve seen a Mr. Coffee pot in his apartment so I wondered both why he didn’t have a similar pot at his home, and why he didn’t have a coffee grinder at his apartment.  I asked if he recently got into grinding his own beans and he said that he thinks it is satisfying.  He seemed sort of proud of grinding his own beans
Plugs in coffee bean grinder (not always plugged in because other devices compete for the spot)
Closes lid of bean grinder and pushes it down to start grinding until the built-in timer is done (doesn’t know the time, 10ish seconds).  Grinder makes a loud noise as it grinds in the beans, and the beans can be seen spinning around the grinder I wasn’t sure how the grinder worked at first so I had to ask about it.  Also confused how the timer works
Takes metal soup spoon and spoons out some ground coffee into small metal coffee filter (2 1/2 spoonfuls) (looks like a basin with holes at the bottom that funnels into a long and small hole).  Appeared more focused I didn’t know that metal filters existed – I was always seen plastic filters or the filter paper.  Also, it seems like this entire process is fairly mindless for him, as he doesn’t really measure much and just approximates without much thought
Takes metal container – the bottom of the “coffee maker” (what he calls it) and fills it to a “max fill” line with cold tap water I could not see how much water was in the container because the camera couldn’t pick it up through the shadows
Takes filter with coffee beans and sets it in the water container – it sets into place near the top of the water I couldn’t really see how much the coffee grounds touched the water (if at all)
Screws top of metal “coffee maker” onto the bottom two parts.  The pieces screwing together makes a metal-on-metal grinding noise, but it is not excessively loud.  When I asked he appeared more attentive I wasn’t sure what makes the filter stay in place, but I assumed that the top keeps it locked in somehow.  Also, I asked if he knew what the actual name for the “coffee maker” was and he looked up the actual name which is mocha pot.  But he prefers coffee maker
Complete coffee maker is completely metal with a rubber handle and a rubber top to the lid, lots of angles.  As he put it together he continued to seem kind of amused by the interview The coffee maker looked very interesting, I hadn’t seen one like that before.  Looked quite small for a coffee maker
Takes coffee maker to stove and places it directly on stove grate and turns on flame This was very interesting, definitely different than how I’ve seen coffee made before.  Though seems like it would be very effective with such direct heat
Flame is big enough to cover bottom but not go over bottom and wrap around coffee maker
Lets pot boil until steam starts to rise through the mouth of the coffee maker (he’s unsure how long it usually takes, estimates 3-4 minutes).  The steam is visible through the mouth but did not make any noise There may have been noise from the coffee maker that the phone did not pick up over FaceTime
Lets handle cool for 10 seconds I wondered what it felt like – how hot the handle got and how hot the coffee maker itself got
Pours finished coffee into a small cup that is very short compared to other cups he uses I thought the cup was very short and almost inconvenient since it holds so little coffee
Cup is ceramic with white handle, bottom, and outlier, and yellow background with a black star on the side and some unrecognizable parts I was interested in what the cup showed, but he did not know if it had any particular meaning / it did not have meaning to him
Pours cold skim milk into coffee, with a ratio of 2 coffee to 1 milk, puts no sugar I remarked that I could never do coffee without sugar, though we use similar amounts of milk
The coffee maker makes 2 of the small cups of coffee I was surprised that the coffee maker made so little, partially because I did not understand how small it was just by looking at it over FaceTime.  I was also surprised because I thought my friend drank a large amount of coffee so the small amount seemed inconvenient to him.  I asked and he said that he has been drinking less coffee recently so it is suitable.  I speculated to myself that maybe he bought such a small coffee maker to stop himself from drinking too much coffee, since in the past he has done actions that I think are similar to limit things he sees as bad.  I wondered what his thoughts on caffeine are at the moment, because he has switched between drinking caffeine and trying to not drink it

 

Attached are screenshots of different parts of the process: the coffee bean jar, the coffee grinder, the filter on the bottom of the coffee maker, the coffee maker on the stove, and the cup used to drink coffee.

 

Summary

Bryan starts by opening a glass jar of coffee beans and putting two to three handfuls in the coffee bean grinder on the counter.  Once in the grinder, he closes the lid and holds down, activated the grinder, which grinds the beans for about 10 seconds until an internal timer ends the grinding.  He then retrieves a spoon and puts 2 ½ spoonfuls of coffee grounds into the metal coffee filter.  He takes the bottom piece of the metal coffee maker and fills it to the fill line with cold tap water, then puts the filter into place over the water.  He retrieves the top portion of the coffee maker and screws the two portions together, creating a complete coffee maker.  He puts the coffee maker directly onto the stove grate, and turns the stove burner on high enough that the bottom of the coffee maker is enveloped, but low enough that it does not spill onto the sides of the coffee maker.  Once there is steam escaping from the mouth of the coffee maker, after 3-4 minutes, the coffee is done.  He waits for the rubble handle to cool down and pours coffee into a particular cup he uses.  Finally, he pours skim milk into the cup in a 1:2 ratio with the coffee, and is ready to drink the coffee.

 

 

Reed’s Main Comments

  • Could include video and audio evidence
    • I have those and could submit if necessary
  • Include more of the informant’s emotions and expressions
    • I put some in, but I should have focused on that more during the interview
  • Observer’s emotions
  • Observer’s relationship with informants
  • Circumstances around Bryan drinking coffee: When does he make it? How often?  How did he choose those tools?
    • I did not ask about these, but I can infer meaning from my previous experiences with him
  • The meaning of coffee for Bryan

 

Reed and I also talked about some issues of the virtual interviewing method.  The fact that the informant controls the camera is severely limiting to the ethnographer.  I could not see most of the objects for more than a second or two, and had to ask when I wanted to focus on an object.  He seemed fairly amused also, which may point to another issue with this virtual interview: it feels weird to be explaining such a normal task in such an abnormal environment (to a camera and a screen).  The separation between the informant and the observer may be further strained by a screen as well: combining social distance with physical distance