To consider yourself a cultured person, as pretentious as that comment sounds, you must also consider yourself a coffee person. There are few cultures, nations, or ethnicities that do not divulge in coffee. In fact, it’s something of a constant all around the globe that never seems to disappoint if you ever find yourself longing for a little bit of familiarity in a strange environment.

Familiar as it may be, for those who pay attention, you will find all the subtle signs in taste and aroma that can tell you where this coffee was grown and perhaps even who may have roasted it. That is what makes coffee so special, the idea that in its universality we can see it expressing itself as different from the rest.

Just like people, all you must do is sit down, sip slowly and pay attention to the little things that make them different from the others. And most of all try not to take from it, its hidden individuality by forcing your own nature upon it with self-reflective sugars, milks, and other crap that is sure to conceal its true self. True for people and coffee alike.

Coffee is metaphorical with people if you really think about it. We find the coffee bean in every city and town on this earth, cohabitating with individuals like you and me. In the collective, it is just one in a million, hardly worth picking out one over another. Without the things we wear, the things we see and say, without all the attributes that make us, us, we are just human beings. Just like the untouched coffee bean is just a bean.

But like coffee we all undergo a roasting process. We all are pulled from different soils receiving differing levels of nutrients and sunshine. We are all the same thing but never are we entirely equal at our inception. The roast is our induction into life as we have realized our adult form, we have developed our core values that are born of where we come from as well as the trials we endure that make us what we are. Perhaps we will be honey roasted, and perhaps we will be burnt, and whether others get to really see what we’re made of we taste how we taste. Bitter, fruity, nutty, weak, or strong, we are forged in fire to reveal our flavor.

Even in our new realized form of a real cup of coffee, if you strip away the latte art and the cool and unique atmosphere of each coffee shop, you will find a simple cup of coffee to be the most profoundly independent thing for something that is found everywhere and advertised as just the same old thing. The reason roasting is believed to be largely an art over a science is because it is near impossible to replicate the exact same roast over another. Like changing generations all carrying the name of American, coffee will always be one batch of the same mix that just turned out a little bit differently with all its intangible qualities.

Such a powerful influence to our culture, we use coffee as not just a stimulant in our daily lives, but as a form of identity. While most people don’t particularly claim coffee as a form of expression outright, we see their likes and dislikes in their coffee and further in the way they drink their coffee. For some people, they aren’t just a cup of coffee, they are a “Tall Grande Espresso with whip cream and cinnamon,” others just want a “cup of Joe.” You tell me if those two people are different or not.

Coffee does something that few non-alcoholic beverages do that make them particularly akin to people. Coffee is social. Things that are used beyond their basic functions are what people consider a part of their unique culture, the things that are not just practical but artistic, expressive, and personified with the identity it has created.

That is why we drink it together, that’s why we go on coffee dates, that’s why we study in coffee shops, and that’s why we write and create in coffee shops. Because coffee transcends what it is supposed to do and encapsulates a humanity of sorts.

Coffee, more than any other beverage in the world, has maintained itself as a timeless staple in our communities as it continues to reflect our humanity and be our much-needed companion to help us brave the new day. While to some the subject of coffee is not needing nearly as many words as I have attributed to it here and believe the subject to be quite trite, it serves as a common denominator to nearly any other culture or place in the world. It is something to be shared by everyone wherever you are from and allows us to connect on a much larger scale than the local one that we regularly participate in.

Coffee represents all factions in life and is all inclusive ranging also in the business worlds from huge multi-million dollar corporations to small mom & pop businesses that just do it because they are lovers of coffee. Coffee is a thing like clothes, food, architecture, and many other things, that we see as a reflection of the human being. While these things may fluctuate with the times in fashion or preference, they never disappear, and they never becoming non-essentials to the human experience.