Globex Corporation Newsletter

Coffee is really great. Maybe that comes primarily from the fact that I'm not drinking beer right now. Given my choice of every tasty beverage in existance, spread out in front of me, I'll pick something from the brewer's craft every time. Take away all of the beers, though, and I'll pick coffee.

But coffee is really great. It's a lot more acceptable to drink at work than beer as well. It's acceptable to drink pretty much everywhere (unless you're Morman). People get together to drink it, shops have sprung up so people can hang out together and drink coffee. Most of us have a machine in our houses that will not only brew a fresh pot of coffee anytime we want it, but will do it automatically so we can have a fresh cup of coffee as we emerge from the shower in the morning.

It serves an important purpose to those of us who aren't morning people. Now I don't generally have to deal with mornings, but when I do, the first thing I reach for is a hot cup of coffee. If I'm driving somewhere, I can take coffee along with me in a special designed spill-proof mug. If I forgot to brew some coffee before I left and just can't wait to get on the road, there are many places that I can drive up to, give them money, and they'll give me coffee in a less spill-proof container. Try that with beer.

There have been many drives that wouldn't have occured without a whole lot of coffee. Lots of times I wouldn't get through a shift at work without a whole lot of coffee. My employer provides coffee. I've never had an employer that provided or encouraged me to drink beer, bar owners who were naiive enough to pay me to play music not withstanding.

And coffee loves me. It doesn't want me to stop drinking it. I've tried to stop or cut down on my coffee consumption a few times, and every time my body revolts, particularly my brain. If you've never tried to give up coffee, you are unable to imagine the headaches you'll get as your body insists on its caffeine fix. Stop drinking beer? Hell, that's easy, for me it's social, it's a habit, it's not an addiction. Coffee? Forget about it! I love beer, I NEED coffee.

That said, coffee has never gotten me into the type of trouble that beer has. And beer has gotten me into a bit a trouble. Not as much trouble as distilled spirits, but trouble none the less. It's gotten me into relationships that, stone cold sober, I never would have found myself. Stuff less meaningful (but no less pleasing - at least for the moment) than true relationships too. As near as I can tell, coffee doesn't make me irresistable to the opposite sex the way beer does - - - at least that's the way I remember it.

I've never spent all night drinking coffee and then wanted to call an old girlfriend and tell her how much I miss her. I've drunk coffee and wanted to drive a car fast, but that's only because my senses were so hightened that I could completely handle it. Coffee makes my mouth run the way beer does, but it keeps the logic centers in my brain a little more intact than beer.

So it begs the question: Coffee Better Than Beer?

No, but I really like coffee.

BOJ