Let's Talk About Se... Coffee

I had small a cup of coffee today. Once a week, or once a fortnight, is as much as I’ll have.  I am by no means the kind who says:

There have been times I used to drink coffee every morning, just before rushing off to college, until I realized it wasn’t doing me any good, and that I was doing it just out of habit, and not out of preference. I took a snap decision and went cold turkey on it…and spent the next two weeks sleeping in class till my body adjusted back to running normally and learnt to not depend on coffee to stay awake. I had no other withdrawal symptoms, thankfully.

And there was also this time, again during college, when I’d make myself a cup of coffee at night (!) with the hopes that it would help me stay awake longer to study, or to work on that assignment which needed to be submitted, or something similar. I soon realized it wasn’t doing much in way of giving me the focus I needed, after catching myself fall asleep on top of my books within minutes of finishing the beverage.

Zzz...

That was when my aunt suggested eating oranges instead, and boy, after just two oranges, I got a kick so strong, I was buzzing. Who knew you could get high on oranges!

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Anyway, I don’t have an easy relationship with coffee. I love the way it smells. Like, love it! I love coffee cake too; it’s one of my favourites. As well as coffee ice cream. But drinking coffee? I find that it almost always leaves me disappointed (same story with today’s café noir). To me, the taste doesn’t live up to the aroma. I’ll be happy just sniffing the air while that pot’s brewing.

But…

What’s up with society’s obsession with coffee? 

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I personally feel that this “coffee culture” is over the top. And it’s not just coffee per se, it’s the caffeine. A few years ago, there were very few caffeinated drinks. And now? There are too many kinds of energy drinks to count. Why do people need so many energy drinks? I know I grew up just fine without them, but today’s teens and pre-teens chug these sugary caffeinated aerated drinks down like it’s their life’s elixir. It’s an addiction society’s creating and encouraging.

What really got to me, though, was when I saw this new (rather, new-to-me) bottled drink, SH₂OCK. Which, they say, is plain water containing caffeine. Seriously??? Have we become so addicted to this drug that we need it in water as well?

I get that coffee photos look gorgeous. 

I get that latte art is beautiful. 

 I get that coffee jokes are funny.

HAHAHA!

What I don’t get is this extreme addiction. This coffee culture. This caffeine-fueled society. The status symbol coffee has reached. The level of idolization. The cult following. And most of all, the myriad energy drinks.

Almost all offices have a coffee machine. Why don’t they have hot chocolate machines as well?