Avery Café Culture | Welcome Home Autumn 2018
Fancy a coffee?
Many of us do and the culture around coffee and coffeehouses dates right back to the 14th century in Turkey, where they were traditionally popular social hubs, as well as artistic and intellectual centres; these earliest coffee houses had minimalist décor and were seen as quite functional places. Today, cafés continue to grow in importance, and in the last ten years the number of coffee shops on UK high streets has more than doubled. They have evolved as important social meeting points where you see people gathering to read, write, discuss, or just pass the time of day with friends.
Well-being and drinking coffee
In British culture, coffee is often regarded as celebratory with more of a refined meaning than drinking tea – a break away from the ordinary, often linked to special occasions. The aroma and flavour of coffee makes it a drink for pleasure through our olfactory and gustatory senses, rewarding for both smell and taste. Coffee also contains caffeine, which works to positively change mood by releasing dopamine, a chemical messenger responsible for affecting the pleasure system in the brain, creating a feel-good state.
Drinking tea is seen as more of an everyday ritual, often linked with the time of the day, mostly being taken in the mornings; it is also instrumental in bringing friends and family together and also for bolstering spirits. Aware of all of these benefits, we ensure that Avery cafés offer both tea and coffee and are open throughout the day, so residents can enjoy their morning cuppa or entertain visiting family and friends with speciality coffees. Just as one would expect of a favourite high street café.
The Avery Coffee Community
With modern, urban and increasingly busy lives, at work or travelling in between, people can sometimes feel cut off from opportunities to socialise; cafés can provide that sense of community, almost the ‘third place’ besides home and office. When you don’t get time to see friends and family, a café can provide a sense of welcome where you can sit, relax and talk. Avery understands that some care home residents who have families with busy lives could feel that sense of being cut off, so we actively encourage our residents to socialise and interact with each other and our cafés are a perfect place to do that, with friends, visitors and even the local community groups that we invite in.
But where is best to locate a café in a care home? Due to their welcoming role, Avery architects carefully plan our cafés to be near the main receptions, so that visitors and residents experience a warm arrival; the designers also locate friendly coffee areas at lift exits, to act as a social focal point on each floor.
The cafés are equipped with inviting, comfortable chairs, high quality coffee makers, daily newspapers, coffee table books and stylish, warm-colour décor, not to forget the Italian style cups to create that authentic café experience. In addition to coffee, our cafés also serve delicious home-baked cakes and teas and juices, with internet access, gentle music or live TV news channels.
Avery cafés bring all these elements together – sounds, sights, aromas and social contact, to really help to make residents feel good and invigorate their well-being. Visitors are always invited to stop by, so if you would like to experience the Avery Café Culture, why not drop in for a coffee at your local Avery home.
Article by Löis Aspinall, Marketing Manager
