A few weeks ago, I was in the kitchen making myself a cup of coffee when a family member walked in and said to me, “You drink coffee? Wow I feel pretty old!”
I just smiled and laughed, but my internal response was “Bro, I’m a sophomore in college…I’ve been drinking coffee for almost a decade!”
This dark bitter substance has become somewhat of a trend in my generation’s culture. It’s not just for the tired, overtime working, grumpy old people anymore. Phrases like “But first, coffee” or Instagram captions like “Coffee and Jesus” have become clichés that leave me wondering “What makes coffee cool?”
Let me take a step back to say, I love coffee! I’ll take it plain and simple, in the form of a latte, or occasionally (if I’m feeling bold) I’ll enjoy an Americano. This being said I haven’t jumped on this bandwagon enough to post pictures or buy shirts or canvases of this beloved drink. Here’s my thing: coffee is not new, so why is it the young person’s drink? The idea of what a coffee shop is has changed from a local diner where you can get a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal and eggs to a giant dimly lit living room where you can buy all varieties of lattes and muffins while listening to a mediocre guitar player/songwriter. For Christmas, my dad got his father a cookbook from a local steak house. One of the recipes was for something called, “Cowboy Coffee”. The ingredients are 1) Coffee 2) Water. I laughed at the fact that this was in the cookbook as some fancy concoction, but then I wondered how many of today’s coffee drinking hipsters actually drink “Cowboy Coffee”. I’m here to point out the two sides to coffee and explain what all this hype is about:
Aesthetics vs. Cowboys (yes I’m still talking about coffee and not body builders and football players)
Aesthetics: These are the Instagrammers, the Oliver & Otis shirt wearers, and the Starbucks fanatics. They are the ones who wake up and decide to brew a café mocha from their Keurig, not because of a morning routine, but for the artsy pic with the ceramic mug they made last weekend. These are the ones who order off the menu at Starbucks and get something with a crap ton of sugar and minimal espresso.
Cowboys: These are the ones who take it straight up. They enjoy simple things. They find pleasure in the ritual of starting the day with a single cup of coffee. These are the ones who stick to the original ingredients, which are 1) Coffee 2) Water.
There is nothing wrong with either of these types as long as they are able to recognize where they fit on this scale of coffee drinkers. Personally, I’m probably somewhere in the middle which is great because who doesn’t love an aesthetic cowboy?
Ps — Something that is unique to the way I write articles is I like to recommend a song that fits with the theme. This week’s song suggestion: Coffee by Sylvan Esso.
