What is coffee, apart from the banal statement that it is a drink?
The fact that a separate column is dedicated to him here, and not to tea, beer or orange juice, says a lot, but not everything.
The coffee, not the one at Starbucks, not the one from the hands of a barista, not even that from the capsule, but the normal one from the pot, holds society together. It’s one of the last campfires around which the republic gathers – not like it used to be in the evening, with “Wetten, dass…?”, but in the morning, when people are much more alike than at the end of the day.
Not all cats are gray at night. If so, then in the morning. Half past nine in Germany. Or even better: half past six. Everyone is unkempt and without make-up, the day in front of everyone is as innocent and blank as a blank sheet of paper.
Almost everyone drinks coffee. Well, because everyone can cook it and then call it that. Many also watch the morning magazine in the morning. The fact that the moderators have cups in front of them creates a connection to those in front of the television. They also have cups in front of them. It’s not clear what’s in the presenters’ cups. But you know. Tea is drunk from smaller, more pointed cups. From the big, clumsy ones only when someone is sick and has to drink herbal tea. But the MoMa presenters are apparently not sick – so they drink coffee, the drink of the healthy.
Drinking it makes you likeable. So it is no wonder that the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder chose coffee mugs with a Star Trek or Spiderman motif as his constant companions. Even without imprints, they speak for themselves.
Drinking coffee is more than sitting in front of a campfire. If you grasp the cup with both hands, you receive heat and give it at the same time. This is what it looks like. This is not yet a solution to the energy crisis, but it is a wonderful metaphor for social cohesion.
Anyone can prepare filter coffee and call it that.
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Image: dpa
Coffee is the force that always creates good, or at least reminds us of it. It is part of the inventory of crime novels like Tatort. There he cushions the genre-typical dangers and acts of violence: the coffee that the inspectors drink, the coffee that suspects are given during interrogation. It was undignified that the DFB leadership had only water left in the report to the sports committee of the German Bundestag. Rudi Völler said: “There’s not even coffee here.”
Coffee stands for a minimum of humanity, for security, for nice routine. It is not for nothing that a successful podcast is called “Apocalypse & Filter Coffee”. A filter coffee machine is the antithesis of a catastrophe. Also the opposite of the hourglass: time is running out. The coffee runs through. Lebbe goes further.
Coffee creates intimacy and community at the same time. Now that cigarettes have almost disappeared from everyday working life, colleagues can hardly meet up and chat for a few minutes – except in the coffee kitchen.
Coffee is simple yet complex. It is surrounded by an aura of comfort – and of departure. He stimulates and helps to come down.
Where water and liquor form the extreme edges, he is firmly anchored in the middle. Anyone who invites for coffee does not owe themselves or others anything, but can expect that the guests will be home for dinner. Meeting up for coffee may arouse hope, but not suspicion, as would be the case with wine or Prosecco, but also with water.
Coffee is the sin of the harmless. And the supposedly harmless. Even members of the Ethics Council are committed to it, politicians anyway. This threatens to water him down.
The coffee is strong, with or without milk. But you have to be careful. Its half-life is short.
It may be that cold coffee makes you beautiful. But nothing tastes worse. Because everyone knows how good he could have been minutes ago.
In this respect, every coffee is a reminder to be careful with the limited time we have together, to enjoy it with concentration.
There is a beautiful song by the Austrian band STS, “Grandfather”. It’s about the wish to see the dead grandpa again for a few minutes, to talk to him. Not for a beer, not for a cup of tea, but: for a quick coffee.