Welcome to Caffeine Culture!

Welcome to caffeine culture! Coffee is probably bigger business than it’s ever been and your average gas station features at least ten flavors of brew compared to the old days when there was a single spigot from one of those industrial level metal pots (the other one being reserved for plain hot water) or even worse just a pair of desolate Pyrexes sitting on a heater. But what's the attraction? Caffeine is like being one of those characters in an Antonioni movie of the 60’s where decadent aristocrats flaunted fast cars and glamorous women. Where amphetamines are over the top and vaguely antisocial amidst an opioid crisis, coffee and its fellow travelers like black tea and Coke provide the extra kick that fuels one’s overdrive. If you're trying to get somewhere, coffee puts an extra "tiger in your tank" to recall the old Esso slogan. A coffee high can produce great ideas. Balzac’s productivity might partially be attributed to coffee—for which he had an outsized thirst (he reputedly died at 51 after drinking 50 cups on an empty stomach). Now you can buy concoctions with power names like Nitro Cold Brew which provide an even greater kick since they're cold enough to swill down in a couple of gulps. The only problem is that once the effect wears off, there's only one way to get it back and that’s by ordering a backup, a remedy which when taken too often can have an adverse affect on the intestinal tract, not to mention sleep which doesn’t normally go hand in hand with the imbibing of coffee or any other caffeinated drink for that matter.