"Wake up and smell the coffee. It's soft"

In his movie "Roger & Me", Michael Moore makes the observation that San Francisco has 1 coffee shop for every 49 people in the town. This was in the early 90's, and my guess is that the ratio has only gotten better for the coffee shops. Coffee is deservingly the most widely consumed beverage in the world today. But my complaint is not against coffee itself, but the way it is being marketed to the people, robbing them both of money and useful man-hours. (..ok woman-hours too)

I am one of those people who can't start a day without coffee. I have seen many people appear groggy in the morning if they are robbed of their favourite "latte" - as though it's their only mode of sustenance, and their entire energy for the day was captured in a 12 oz plastic cup. Scientific studies have proven that caffeine in moderate doses increases one's alertness level, helps reduce anxiety, prolongs time to exhaustion or increases your performance in endurance sports. It surely sounds like the elixir of life which needs to be quaffed every morning. Haven't you seen people strutting around every morning with their favorite mocha on an outstretched arm as if it was some trophy they won in a gladiator fight, and that they deserve the right of way however crowded be the intersection or bylane ?

On the other hand overdose of caffeine can lead to high blood pressure, increase of stress level in hormones, complications in pregnancy and nervousness. There is much of debate about how much coffee is exactly an overdose - it'sanywhere between 4-10 cups a day. I am pretty sure that most of you already know the advantages and ill effects of coffee and make wise decisions as to the number of cups of coffee you gulp in a day. But thats just coffee...what about the coffee shops ?

Increasingly one observes the fad, particularly amongst the young blood, to hang out with friends at coffee joints. Coffee seems like a nice non-alcoholic replacement to a social drink and I dont blame people for falling prey to this addiction. Seinfeld calls Starbucks as Fourbucks - and thats probably apt too, the way they fleece people of their hard earned cash. I hate starbucks cause they never have comfortable seats. They have these small circular table, the size of a laptop, and only 2 chairs to go with them - but you neverthless end up finding a herd of 10 gathered around the table, each arguing the virtues of their frappucino, and how they enjoy not being at work..yada yada. I have infact seen people sitting at Starbucks, rather than their own office and working. The enitre atmosphere seems a bit snobbish to me, as everyone pretends to work away on something very important as they contemplates and takes in a sip of their espresso. And could someone please explain me the concept of decaffeniated coffee ? There are people who are actually paying dough to get the caffeine removed from coffee....is it just me or is it that people are getting really dumber....

....hmmm I gotta go now as the coffee girl just called out my name, to inform me that my "caramel latte" is ready...just kidding !

( By the way if you are not already aware of it,the title of this blog is what Dean Jones told Chris Adams, the skipper of Surrey, after he alleged that Shane Warne's sledging had been very distasteful in the match against Hamshire.....as you can see the title surprisingly had nothing to do with coffee after all)