Long before I ever had my first sip of beer I knew about "beer muscles." Actually, come to think of it, I vividly recall when I was 4 years old sneaking a sip of my dad's Old Milwaukee (maybe it was Schlitz) when he stepped out of the truck to pee while we were driving along the back country roads (for obvious reasons). But we know what beer muscles are. In a sense they are that inflated ego and sense of invincibility that comes when too much beer has been consumed.
I've also heard about "Twitter muscles." You know, that guy who's overly confident on Twitter or message boards and forums who hides behind his username in anonymity. Yes, I'm using all dude pronouns because this something that seemingly only plagues the male species. Beer muscles ... Twitter muscles, in a lot of ways they are rooted in the same concept. That is the ability to hide behind or become inflated by something else. In a lot of ways we might call them PEDs (performance enhancing drugs).
Ironically though, coffee has the same effect.
Don't believe me? Ok, tell me about your morning before coffee and then after coffee. BIG difference. There are a lot of days when I'm rolling out of bed and I don't want to face the dragons of my schedule, the ogres of running a business, the orcs of expectations, and the like. However, after coffee all of a sudden I'm Aragorn in Lord of the Rings gladly facing the hordes of whatever evil armies are at my gate. We have beer muscles, but maybe it's time for coffee muscles.
Coffee is like a precious diamond. Every facet or angle reveals something amazing. There's the whole coffee nerd and foodie side of coffee with a focus on tasting notes, brew methods, extraction, water temp, and more. Then there's the whole pragmatic aspect of coffee where our world and outlook on life are vastly different pre- and post-coffee.
So yes, maybe it is time to bring "coffee muscles" into our lexicon.
Words by Sean Benesh, Loam Coffee Founder and Brand Manager. Photo by Lonography.