the coffee aesthetic

As many teenagers, I'm pretty addicted to coffee.

Okay, well, maybe not exactly addicted. I just really like drinking it and the way it makes me feel. But, most of all, I like the aesthetic, or "the coffee aesthetic", if you will (what a title reference!).

The thing is, that coffee has become cool.

It all started with Starbucks, with its instagrammable cups where they write your name and weird coffee flavours, like the famous pumpkin spice latte.

Starbucks has transformed drinking coffee into an experience; a ritual.

But here in Italy I'm misunderstood. They can't really understand the Starbucks coffee experience, 'cause in this country we have the culture of coffee. It has to be short, caffeinated and cheap.

You basically enter into a coffee bar in the morning, get your teeny tiny cup of coffee and drink it like a shot (cue "My Shot" from Hamilton now playing on repeat in my head).

Then you pay and go away, ready to conquer the day.

This is so sad to me. What I like to do when I go to Starbucks is to get my big coffee, that is probably less caffeinated and definitely more expensive than the Italian coffee, sit down, maybe read a book, and take a photo of my cup for instagram.

Us students are pretty sleep deprived. I, for example, suffer from insomnia. But many of us can't sleep because of stress or doing homework late at night, either because you forgot you had it, or you had sport practice in the afternoon.

So there is this trend among us students of competing to see who's the most sleep deprived. This brings us to the fact that coffee is now an aesthetic; a personality trait and, sadly, something we need to drink in order to survive our day.

If you are in this same situation, in this episode I gave some tips on how to balance your coffee intake and make it more healthy.

And if you're struggling with insomnia, this is the article for you.

But coffee isn't a monster. It is also a way to bring us together, like when you go out with your friends and you stay hours chatting about everything in front of a cup of coffee; whether it's a gigantic Starbucks one, or a tiny Italian one. It's up to you.

(also, yes, my friend's name is the same as mine. It's actually Sophia, but the "ph" is still pronounced "f")

I really hope I helped you in some way and remember: drink (coffee) responsibly!