JACK NEWCASTLE SAYS,
Three men introduce themselves to two women at a penny social. They dance, they talk. they laugh, and for the rest of the evening the group is inseperable. When it’s time to leave, a suggestion of coffee at the local diner is made, and there is some scrambling for the car seats as each man attempts to sit next to the lady of his choice. - only there aren’t enough ladies to go around. Once inside the eatery, they perform the same ballet, cramming their odd number into a booth designed for four. The waitress waddles over. ‘What’ll it be,’ she asks.
‘Coffee,’ says the first.
‘Same here,’ says the second.
‘And again,’ chimes the third.
‘Me too,’ says the fourth
Finally, all eyes turn toward the last.
'Huh? Me? I'll just have a Diet Coke.'
Guess who’s going home to an empty flat?
Doctor’s orders notwithstanding, there’s something particularly odd about a fellow who won’t join in on a social cup of coffee. It’s as though his tastes have never matured - and he right along with them. I see these men on the morning train, Pepsi and candy bar in hand, having what must be America’s answer to the continental breakfast. Frankly, I’m embarasssed for them, for I’ve always believed a man should drink a man’s drink, and for breakfast that would be coffee.
Coffee is for the dreamers and doers, for men of thought and men of action, and all of those men, by the way, are one and the same. The contemplative man starts his day by sorting out his life over that first cup of joe, each sip evoking another pressing decision, tough or easy, but nonetheless one more that inevitably has to be made. Should I change careers? Should I break it off with Polly? When am I going to do about the car? The deliberate pace inherent to coffee gives him time to weigh the facts and consider the options and somewhere in all those wafting aromatic swirls he knows he might find inspiration; the answer itself even coming with that definitive click of cup meeting saucer in a pre-dawn quiet. It’s this sort of solitary morning ritual that is good for the soul, and when the cup is empty and the plan is formulated, our man of thought turns into that man of action, grabbing his hat and coat to set out into another world he is about to create. Men on coffee run businesses, heal the sick, build cities, produce great works of art, found dynasties, and realize the impossible to shape the course of history; men on cola usually start flinch contests.
If all this makes me sound the coffee extremist, I’m not, and I would never suggest to break up that holy trinity of burger, fries, and a Coke, but it’s an incontrovertible fact that nothing goes better with a slice of blueberry pie and there are few experiences cozier than waking up to the smell of a fresh pot on the stove with bacon and eggs frying up in a pan. As the reader should expect, my original draft had more on the gustatory aspects of the drink, but, dissatisfied with that angle, I took a long hard look into my morning cup, and right on cue, inspiration came wafting up from those swirls of coffee black.
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MATT DECKARD SAYS
Coffee will always leave that bitter taste in your mouth, will always stain your teeth, will always seem like that business drink will always need a filter and will always be something you don’t want your kids to drink. It’s a stimulant in an ugly package that gives you a coffee smile with yellow teeth, yellow stained mug, and a yellow ring on your desk where you always sit your mug. Why punish yourself with your addiction? Why not come over to what the rest of the world is drinking when they really want to stay up all night to finish that proposal or play that videogame till the end (which could mean several days of alertness).
With both drinks, it’s the caffeine they deliver; it affects your central nervous system giving you jitters that keep you alert allowing you to have that heightened sense of the world around you. You can keep delivering that sense to your system using several methods but the easiest and most refreshing by far has been the combination of the cola flavor with carbonated water, ad some coloring and a classy and upbeat logo and put it in a glass with ice (or a 42 oz. cup with a top and a straw) and you are ready to roll. In the past it was looked at as the American drink and cultivated in other countries like Japan and Russia as an elixir, similar to the way the drink was cultivated when it originated in the US.
Soda pop is now so popular that its consumption has allowed the soda pop industry to sell their drinks at lower prices than water itself.
It’s is an insidious drink that is undermining the teas and coffees and punches of the world because it is all those things you want rolled into a pop top aluminum can.
At its origin, soda pop’s elixir market grew to a point where its creators had to change their market strategy from selling it as a medicine to making it the all purpose drink which is why soda pop is the de facto standard of children and adults alike. No longer the drink of teenagers, it’s what they offer you when you walk into that big business deal and what they try to sell you through the speaker at the drive through. From flights across the U.S. to camping trips in the Ozarks, from hot Dr. Pepper to the refreshing ice-cold glass bottles of Coca-Cola, this stimulant delivering liquid has become accepted by the modern generation more so than that of the old world standards of coffee and tea. When it comes to running to that class or grabbing a bite to eat when driving to the office it appears that more and more people are refreshing themselves with the diet, cherry, lemon, and strawberry blends that are served through a straw. Its taste and abilities have not only jumped boarders but created political movements causing countries to develop their own versions of pop like Mecca Cola and Zam Zam Cola, sodas created in order to keep the youth of nations not too keen on U.S. products from becoming Americanized themselves… The desire for Soda-Pop is universal and won’t be quieted. Will coffee fall to the way side? Well it has with youth. Overall I think cola has already won when it comes to the war on stimulating drinks.
With coffee being a dying breed of drink, the question is which soda company will reign supreme? |
