This study examines the role of symbolic capital in the maintenance and disruption of patterns of institutional control. This article explores how the power relations of coffee roasters have survived the changing nature of coffee consumption. This is achieved through an interpretative, qualitative study focus on the coffee industry in United States, between 1929 and 2010. The study contends that market control is not only based on the economic power of dominant actors. It argues that institutional underpinnings are also importantly. More specifically, the article explores how the use of symbolic capital is reflected in organizational discourse at a micro level, and in the symbolic system and power dynamics of the coffee roaster industry at the macro level.