Coffee Tastes Better in Community

Okay, music aficionados – what do the groups ANTHRAX, Aerosmith and Over the Rhine have in common?

Certainly not musical genre.

Give up?

Coffee.

All three groups, or at least one member of each group, sells his or her own blend of brew.

ANTHRAX drummer, Charlie Benante, recently began selling “Benante’s Blend” on his website. Aerosmith drummer, Joey Kramer, has been selling his organic blend “Rockin’ & Roastin” for a while now. And Over the Rhine sells an organic blend on its website for “artists, writers, musicians, day dreamers, and night walkers!”

If you click on any of the links in the last paragraph, you’ll find that passion for the drink runs deep. I’m most drawn to Over the Rhine’s passion. Their coffee was inspired by their “love of good music, good conversation, good laughter, good living, and best kept secrets.”

Coffee tastes better in community, even if it is unfamiliar community. I think it’s one of the reasons so many of us visit coffee shops. I wrote about this in Common Grounds: Contemplations, Confessions and (Unexpected) Connections from the Coffee Shop. 

Here’s an excerpt:

C. S. Lewis once said, “We read to know we are not alone.” I think we visit coffee shops for the same reason. We want somebody to ask us how our day is going. We want to hear someone say our name. We want to be pampered, even if we have to overpay for a cup of coffee to experience it. Even the slightest interaction can help us feel noticed. 

Just as I was finishing the previous essay at Stories Coffeehouse, a young woman who was sitting with three other young women approached my table with her iPhone extended and asked me if I would mind taking a photo of her and her friends. Happy to help, I took one vertical and one horizontal photo before handing the phone back to her. On the way home, it hit me—that interaction meant something to me. As someone who occasionally feels like a leper because of my size, I don’t expect people to pick me out of a crowd for such tasks, especially since so many other people were available.

How about you? Are you a coffee lover? If so, how important is the communal aspect of the drink to you?