“I was taken by the power that savoring a simple cup of coffee can have to connect people and create community.”
-Howard Schultz
Coffee shops are not just for bloggers on their laptops or the soccer parents getting together on a Saturday morning. For hundreds of years they have been a nexus of individuals and ideas coming together and generating innovations, ideologies, and relationships.
From Constantinople in the 1550’s to London coffee houses (that gave birth to Lloyd’s of London and the London Stock Exchange) to New York’s Tontine Coffee House (first home of the New York Stock Exchange) to your local Starbucks today, coffee houses have been where people meet, discuss, plan, and build world changing businesses.
More blogs and books have been created in coffee shops than anywhere else. Some of these have connected tens of millions of people, a wide impact for a few cups of Joe.
How many first dates have happened over a latte?
How many little coffee shops across the country host fundraisers for local charities or families in need? And are the center of local politics and informally business, the same functions these establishments have served (along with that caffeinated goodness) for hundreds of years around the globe?
When was the last time you just sat down with a friend or relative over a cup of coffee? One of the recurring memories of my deceased mother is having a mug in the morning and talking as the sun peaked over the horizon, the start to a wonderful day because of the connection and communication and caring.
Coffee. The caffeinated connector of people everywhere.