Global supply chains.

There's BTS branded coffee drinks for sale at grocery stores in my neighborhood.

It's not that BTS products are sold near me that I find confusing; I know they're loved all over the world. It's not that BTS branded coffee drinks baffle me; if I've heard of them, I know they've made it big, and selling coffee helps them stay big. It's not that they've attached their faces to coffee drinks; I understand how marketing firms works. I know they're well-known enough their names and faces can sell coffee all over the world. All that makes sense.

But when I look at these drinks, I think how the coffee was grown in Ethiopia and Honduras. I think about how it was grown and then shipped to South Korea. I think about how those beans were roasted, brewed, mixed with milk, and put into special containers. I think about how these containers were themselves manufactured, and then had the coffee and milk and sugar put into them, and those drinks - needing refrigeration the whole time - were then shipped to the United States from South Korea, and then from their entry point across the country to New York, and then to the grocery stores where I see them.

I look at these drinks and wonder, Could they just sell the cups with the faces, and not make the coffee travel so far to get to me? Because isn't it their faces the reason these drinks are being sold? Couldn't we just buy the cups and make our coffee at home and cut out at least one step in the journey of coffee?

I look at these drinks and think of the miles the coffee took to get to this shelf and wonder, What went into making this possible?