September 9, 2022

"Iced coffee is... used as an amusing identifier among L.G.B.T.Q. people, with viral videos depicting their cultural claim to the drink."

"In 2019, a tweet from the City of New York went viral with a photo of a man making his way through a snowstorm with a Starbucks iced coffee in his hand. While many wondered why he — or anyone — would weather such conditions for the beverage, others offered variations of the same joking explanation: He’s gay. Sam Stryker, a 31-year-old copywriter in Los Angeles, is firmly in the iced coffee camp.... 'It’s like sort of my gay Gatorade,' he said. A Starbucks regular, he never drinks his coffee hot, stating that he doesn’t like the taste and neither does he want to wait for his drink to cool down. 'Iced coffee tastes like jet fuel to me,' he said, quickly noting that he meant that in 'a really positive way.'... While the hashtag #hotcoffee has more than 60 million views on TikTok, #icedcoffee has about six billion on the app and is full of videos of users sharing their complicated iced coffee orders."

Maybe there's not so much #hotcoffee because people are still calling hot coffee "coffee." It's the original term and it hasn't gone through the process that leads to expressions like "snail mail" and "acoustic guitar." That is, "hot coffee" is a retronym that has yet to take hold. All my life, I've heard "iced coffee" specified if that's what you want, and "coffee" is presumed to be hot coffee. Has that changed?

The first appearance of the term "retronym" in print, according to the OED, is this 1980 William Safire column, and the first retronym discussed is "acoustic guitar." Safire defines retronyms as "nouns that have taken an adjective to stay up-to-date and to fend off newer terms." He cites "hard-cover book" and "manual transmission."

Is coffee in that position, needing to fend off iced coffee? Also, are we going to judge how popular something is by how much it inspires TikTok videos? Maybe people who like hot coffee go about their business and do see the need to make a display.

By the way, the sharing of complicated iced coffee orders I see on TikTok comes from baristas who are mocking or hostile toward whoever ordered them. Now, I can see I've got to worry those videos are homophobic!

87 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

Iced coffee. This year's European beverage of choice. Try some now!

RideSpaceMountain said...

If iced-coffee is for the gays, wait till you find out what iced-covfefe is for!

"This shit will make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus. Just like me." - RideSpaceMountain

Lewis Wetzel said...

So, does "Sam Stryker" like iced coffee because he's gay? That might settle the "nature vs nurture" dispute.
Behold the ridiculousness!
"Sam Stryker, a 31-year-old copywriter in Los Angeles, is firmly in the hot coffee camp.... 'It’s like sort of my heterosexual Gatorade . . .'"

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I love hot coffee. I need hot coffee.
More hot coffee for me.

ElPresidenteCastro said...

At the outset of the hipster coffee era, Doonesbury had a coffee shop strip. Lots of fey coffee shop talk followed by B.D. ordering a cup of black coffee. That was it, the entire bit was that B.D. was uncivilized.

Who knew, B.D. was the hero of the entire Doonesbury universe?

I looked for the strip but there are only so many Doonesbury cartoons one can look at with just coffee in their stomach.

gilbar said...

it Always amuses me, when people that won't drink pepsi, drink iced coffee.
Am i saying that iced coffee is for pretend posers, that pretend? Yes; yes i am

Temujin said...

A ridiculous article, from the paper that once had William Safire on it's staff. What a long fall it's been for the Times.

I used to drink well-sugared ice coffee when I was a young guy, working outside. Or in college, when it got to be the afternoon. But only back then. And I was never gay (not that there's anything wrong with it). Through all the years, however, it's coffee of the hot variety that I wake up with and nothing else will supplant that.

I have noticed today's generations do drink cold coffees, dressed up in various ways. Not sure why, but I suspect it's how some people who munch on Skittles all day, start their day: with cold, sweet coffee diluted with dairy.

Coffee is just coffee. I've never had to order 'hot' coffee. But if I wanted it chilled I would have to ask for iced coffee.

gilbar said...

of course; to be fair; there IS the economic reasons to drink iced coffee.
a can of pepsi costs about 75 cents.. A starbucks iced coffee costs, what? 3 bucks?

rhhardin said...

My father claims to have ordered iced coffee back when nobody had ever heard of such a thing.

As a kid I always made it with cold milk and instant coffee, not water and ice.

MOfarmer said...

Never had "iced coffee". In my world that exists in the same subset as "warm beer".

Iman said...

Let’s have another cup of coffee
As they take another slice off you

Lyle Smith said...

I don't like iced coffee as much as hot coffee. It could be 120 degrees out and I'm taking my coffee black and hot. I never ask for hot coffee at the counter; I let them ask me how I will have it.

Jefferson's Revenge said...

I like iced coffee in the summer. I usually have it after my afternoon nap to get the sleep cobwebs out of my head and find it very refreshing on a hot day around 3PM. Not a big fan in the winter though.

I splurged this year and spent $15 on a Mr. Coffee iced tea/coffee maker- available on Amazon through the Althouse portal I assume....

Did not know that gays claimed ownership of the drink though. Understand the rules of today, does that mean I can;'t drink it because of cultural appropriation?

Mich McCormick said...

Perhaps 60% of Starbuck’s sales are iced drinks is because their actual hot coffee is a burnt mess of over processed coffee beans?

Starbucks is now less a coffee chain than a seller of sugar drinks sprinkled w coffee.

I’m not that snobby though bc I will 100% take a Starbucks when I’m traveling in sparsely populated places. Hot burnt coffee is better than no coffee.

Christopher B said...

It seemed to me in the 1990s coffee drinking pretty much stopped, especially among GenX, in favor of drinking cold sodas before the Starbucks craze started. I'm thinking the preference for iced coffee could be a holdover from several generations that never got accustomed to drinking plain black hot coffee (or really lukewarm after the first couple of sips), in favor of sweeter coffee that tastes more like soda.

Carol said...

What is called "iced coffee" now is full of sugar and flavorings. Is that what they're talking about? I used to think they meant iced black coffee, a whole different animal.

Bob Boyd said...

Maybe that’s why Ricky Gourmet vibes with ice coffee “straight out the Pyrex”.

Ann Althouse said...

I remember when people used to insist that hot coffee was effective in cooling you down in the summer.

I can't remember the purported science, but it was a folk theory of science.

Oh, yeah, here's a Smithsonian Magazine article from 2015 making the argument:

"'What we found is that when you ingest a hot drink, you actually have a disproportionate increase in the amount that you sweat... Yes, the hot drink is hotter than your body temperature, so you are adding heat to the body, but the amount that you increase your sweating by—if that can all evaporate—more than compensates for the the added heat to the body from the fluid.'... Jay’s team got to the bottom of the “hot drink” tip by rigorously testing the idea on cyclists in a lab. Each cyclist was equipped with skin temperature sensors and a mouthpiece measuring the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced, which indicated the amount of heat produced by the body’s metabolism. The researchers also carefully tracked the air temperature and humidity, among other factors. The data yielded an overall picture of how much heat each cyclist produced and how much each released to the environment, and those drinking hot water (roughly 122 degrees F) stored less heat in their bodies than the others. The researchers are still unsure why hot drinks lead the body to produce more sweat, but they have an idea. “It’s commonly thought that the hot drinks raise your core temperature, but we found that that isn’t the case,” Jay says. “What we think is that it’s the thermosensors that line the throat and mouth that elicit the additional sweating response.” He notes that additional research is needed to pinpoint the exact location of these sensors...."

That is, it is cooling because it makes you hotter, so you sweat, and sweating works (unless it's humid). If this theory is true it would seem that you should never worry about getting hot (unless it's humid), because you'll sweat and the problem is automatically solved.

Ann Althouse said...

Or I guess the idea is that a hot drink fools the body into over-sweating. Normal heat in the environment would not confuse the system that we've evolved to respond to.

JK Brown said...

First off, blended coffee drinks are not coffee. They are milk and sugar with a shot of coffee. If you listed the ingredients in order of volume like required on packaged food, coffee would likely be at most third. Granted, I'm a confirmed black coffee drinking at about a pot a day.

The 2007-2009, cop drama, 'Life' about a framed cop fresh out of 10 years in prison made a thing of him always saying, "should we get come blended coffee drinks", etc. Having been out of the world, he was always commenting on the dramatic changes.

I'm wasn't opposed to the milk, foam and coffee drinks. I did Starbucks back in the late '80s through the '90s while living in Seattle. The University Village shopping center was amusing. After some remodeling, it had the largest storefront Starbucks, a Starbucks in the Borders, and a Starbucks in the new QFC grocery store. And most ironic was the best lattes and such were served by an outdoor stand in the parking, and weeds, of a light manufacturing place just outside the entrance. Some poor girl would stand out there in the "fine" Seattle weather serving up drinks to cars that pulled up. Also unique, of all the places, it was the only one with a "drive thru".

But when I went to straight coffee, Starbucks was off the list as they burn their beans. I presume because the bitterness better complements the milk, sugar and flavor syrups, the latter being a profit center.

Joe Smith said...

Never been a fan of iced coffee...for some reason coffee tastes great to me when hot, but bitter when on ice.

I only drank it in Tokyo when it was 110-degrees with jungle humidity.

You would buy a cup of ice at the 7-11 in the freezer next to the ice cream bars, then fill it up at the coffee machine.

It was about ninety cents : )

Freeman Hunt said...

Perhaps Starbucks doesn't serve hot coffee as much because every home and workplace has a coffee machine.

Maybe the NYT is turning into a mag.

Jamie said...

I'm interested in the "hot drinks cool you" information - but just as with the "you should never drink anything iced because it does something bad to the digestion" thing (I have several friends in this camp), I'm not interested enough to put it into action. When I'm hot, I like a cold drink. When I'm very hot (and I live in southeast Texas, so, say, May through August), I like an iced drink. Sometimed it's coffee, sometimes water or soda.

On the rare days when we don't finish the morning's whole pot of coffee, I put the remainder in the fridge, in case a desire for cold coffee comes upon me - because microwaved coffee is vile.

But I also know several people who only drink blisteringly hot coffee - I have no idea how! Me, I pour it and set it down beside me to cool for a good while. In the winter, I use the hot coffee cup as a hand warmer as the coffee is cooling to a drinkable temperature.

And that's all I have to say about that.

mgarbowski said...

I get annoyed when I order coffee and get asked whether hot or cold.
Just like when I order a martini and get asked gin or vodka.
I'm not rude in return, but it does annoy me.
There are norms and traditions people.
You can have your cold, iced coffee and vodka with vermouth. Just don't add confusion and inefficiencies by forcing me to specify something was obvious and clear.

Jamie said...

Perhaps 60% of Starbuck’s sales are iced drinks is because their actual hot coffee is a burnt mess of over processed coffee beans?

It took so long to get to the first "Starbucks coffee is burned" comment! I expected that to be at most comment #2.

I like Peet's. All their dark roasts. I never minded Starbucks - but I do use cream and sugar, so I am not a good judge. I resolved, one New Year's, to try to switch to black coffee, did it for two weeks, then realized that I was no longer enjoying coffee - and I like enjoying coffee. So back to the cream and sugar I went.

Huh. I guess I actually did have more to say about that.

rcocean said...

just to echo someone above. Very few people drink Starbucks coffee black. I'm one of the few who do. The baristas are always shocked when I don't want them to put cream or milk in it.

once you get used to black coffee, its the best. Love it, live it, enjoy it.

rehajm said...

Yah. the sweat thing doesn’t work in tropical humidity. When you’re drenched on the third tee extra sweat isn’t going to make you any cooler…

I normally don’t like iced coffee but The Coffee Fox in Savannah makes a transcendent cold brew. I would have taken a drive to get one if not for the monsoons…

Marty said...

Who gives a s**t? It's the New York Times, fer cryin-out-loud.

MadTownGuy said...

"Iced coffee is... used as an amusing identifier among L.G.B.T.Q. people, with viral videos depicting their cultural appropriation of the drink."

Fixed.

I like hot coffee anyway, especially Starbucks dark roasts, because I love the taste - chacun à son goût - and because Starbucks has been such a good employer to our daughter for over 23 years. I drink the dark roasts black and likewise the iced coffees with just black coffee and ice.

rehajm said...

…but it’s the gay coffee? Guess that explains the bit too large smile from the barista.

rcocean said...

I've never put sugar in my coffee. I've seen people poor 4-5 packets in theirs. Good God, why even drink expensive coffee if you're going to drown it in milk and sugar? You might as save some $ and go to the local gas station.

But then some peeps will do that with alcohol. Buy expensive champagne and put OJ in it. Or buy expensive scotch and drown it in club soda and ice.

rhhardin said...

The trouble with ordering iced coffee in a restaurant that never heard of it is that it really takes stronger hot coffee to make it after the ice dilutes it.

Jersey Fled said...

Maybe we're missing the obvious correlation of being gay and going to Starbucks.

who-knew said...

"keep your decaf mocha latte man
just pour me a cup of coffee
I'll go my own way and be uncool" The Derailers

Coffee. Black. anything else is for poseurs.

Beaver7216 said...

I recently had my first iced coffee. Can we get the TikTok Italian husband's opinion on the matter? I trust that guy. No longer add diary to coffee after breakfast on his recommendation.

Vance said...

Gays "own" iced coffee now? Or at least Starbucks iced coffee?

Don't like Starbucks. I don't drink coffee, so I very rarely go there, and then it's to get their hot chocolate. They have this pumpkin hot chocolate that my wife tries every couple of years in hopes it gets better.

But it's insanely expensive for a cup of hot chocolate when I can make it from already expensive Stephan's Gourmet Cocoa at home and it tastes better anyway.

So I guess the gays can have the privilege of paying for snootiness?

I must not be alone--the closest starbucks to me is I think over 50 miles away. At least.

Heh. Now that I look, there are two, count em, two, starbucks in the county next to mine... with two major universities, and probably close to 600,000 people. And those are the closest.

Starbucks is not too popular in my state, though with the continuing Californication of everything I'm sure that will change.

Anthony said...

I think there's a generational thing going on. People from the generation ahead of me (I'm 60) seemed to drink coffee all the time. My dad would always get coffee at breakfast, lunch, etc., as did my older friends. I could never get into it although I tried; the only time I had it regularly (regular hot coffee) was in between later morning classes at the UW at the McD's on Johnson. Mainly to keep awake at the next class.

That said, I have two shots of espresso in hot chocolate milk (aka, a mocha) nearly every day.

Roger Sweeny said...

I learned from my southern daughter-in-law that where she comes from "sweet tea" is cold tea with sugar. If you just ask for "tea", you may well get "sweet tea". If you want regular tea, you have to ask for "hot tea".

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The last girlfriend I had, always ordered ice coffee. Years later, after we broke up, while doing my inventory (AA), I had an epiphany. She had been with me to conceive a child. I was just going to be a sperm donor. I take the ice coffee identification as further confirmation of my suspicions.

Michael K said...

My wife likes iced coffee but she is definitely not gay. I don't and am drinking a cup of hot coffee right now.

John henry said...

I didn't even know Starbucks served coffee.

I wind up being dragged in from time to time and have long since given up on trying to get a cup of drinkable coffee there.

Maybe if you dilute it enough with "milk" (as they call various white liquids) and chemical flavorings, you can't taste how bad it is. But then it's not coffee, is it?

I did not realize that iced coffee was a new thing. I remember it from the 50s. Wikipedia says it was invented in Austria in the 1840s. How come gays are now culturally appropriating non-gay culture and beverages?


John Stop fascism, vote republican Henry

Lucien said...

Is it OK to drink Vietnamese iced coffee, or does that signal some kind of kink?

Lurker21 said...

Cultural appropriation. Those of us who get our iced coffee at 7-11 or some other convenience store don't appreciate it. Unfortunately, we aren't organized ... yet.

Amexpat said...

Nothing against ice coffee, but it's something I would never order. For me, cold drinks are for quenching thirst, which is not Coffee's forte. Hot coffee is for a boost.

I do like coffee milkshakes though. I fill a large glass with ice cream, pour hot coffee over it and then mash.

Back in the 60's, I had a bachelor uncle who always drank iced coffee. My mom had to make it special for him when he visited. I suspect that he was a closeted gay back when being openly gay wasn't an option.

John henry said...


Blogger Lyle Smith said...

I don't like iced coffee as much as hot coffee. It could be 120 degrees out and I'm taking my coffee black and hot.

In the Navy, the engine room where I normally worked and stood watches, was normally 90-100 degrees. Sometimes hotter. Some spots always hotter.

We all drank hot, really hot, coffee by the gallon. and by coffee, I mean real coffee. Black and unsweetened. And strong enough to make espresso taste like water. (Hint: Never empty the the urn. When it gets low, use that as starter and just add water and fresh grounds.)

The theory was that we needed to keep as hot on the inside as on the outside so we would not warp.

We did have a box of sugar. It was next to the coffeepot along with a bottle of steam engine lubricating oil. Grab a handful of sugar, pour some oil on and it would clean better than Lava soap used with GoJo. Because people would be constantly grabbing a handful of sugar with grubby greasy hands, the bowl always pretty nasty. Sure, you can put that sugar in your coffee if you want to. Real sailors learn to drink it black.

John stop fascism, vote republican Henry

PM said...

I have an espresso machine at home and when I forget where I set down my macchiato, it gets cold - how gay is that!

Randomizer said...

Iced coffee is the dessert version of coffee in the same way that chocolate milk is the dessert version of milk. It doesn't make sense to retronym it as hot coffee. The retronym examples, manual transmission or acoustic guitars, resulted from new types of the original thing. For coffee, that might be instant or french press.

Judging the popularity of anything by TikTok or any social media is a lazy mistake.

wildswan said...

I drink iced coffee in the summer on the hottest days - by this I know it's summer. But in the old days, before Starbucks, "coffee" meant "coffee", not latte frappe, not Guatemala, not Arabica. Coffee. And cheese was cheese - yellow in slices of a color never seen in nature. Cheese. Peanut butter went on bread. Hot dogs were what you ate at the zoo; they had mustard. Mustard is mustard is mustard. It's yellow in color, close to cheese. There were three favors of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, sometimes combined in an exotic European way into layers and called Neapolitan. Bulgarians ate yogurt. You went to a restaurant with a red-checked tablecloth a candle in a Chianti bottle for any Italian dish. Vegetarians ate dandelions - you taunted them by offering them torn up grass mixed with yellow-flowered dandelions. I think the food is better now - more varied, more flavorful - but I liked what I ate then just as much as I like what I eat now. Is it safe to say that? Will my fifteen minutes of infamy be for holding values like anti-abortion or MAGA in today's political jungle or for once loving the smooth drip of hot Velveeta on a hot dog on a hot day at the zoo.

n.n said...

Transcaffeinated through adulteration and/or ice.

R C Belaire said...

Caffeine is the key ingredient, so whatever you're attracted to -- go for it. Iced coffee has its place, but pales in comparison to the hot stuff. And the fewer additions to the base brew, the better IMO.

Christopher B said...

The engineer said, afore I die,
There's two more drinks that I'd like to try.
His fireman asked what could they be?
A hot cuppa coffee and a cold glassa tea.


"Rock Island Line"

Leland said...

I have thought of the iced coffee thing to be something for younger people, sort of like Gatorade. Both are variations of mostly sugar water. I suppose it can be fuel, but it is a bad choice for fuel. What truly concerns me with the article is the stereotyping down to sexual identity. Can you imagine the uproar if Trump said “drinking iced coffee is gay”. Here, the NYT does exactly that and it’s ok because they quote a gay guy saying it. It wouldn’t surprise me if a year from now, some body remembers this article, repeats the notion, and then is drummed out of their social group as a homophobe while the NYT hides any links to this article.

Personally, I broke the caffeine habit a decade ago. Having been off of it, it takes a tiny amount, one cup of joe, to keep me awake all night and a withdrawal headache the next day. I don’t miss it nor care if others like it.

Finally, what Freeman Hunt says. The hot coffee drinkers I know don’t spend a lot for it.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

@Joe Smith

When I was in Japan in the early/mid 80s you could just buy cans of cold coffee out of vending machines.

Joe Smith said...

'I like Peet's. All their dark roasts.'

Winner...I will only get the Starbucks frappucino when it's hot...very good.

Pro tip: Buy Peet's cards at Costco at a 20 percent discount : )

Joe Smith said...

'My wife likes iced coffee but she is definitely not gay.'

Maybe she is gay and you're a woman and don't even know it.

It's going around these days...

Wilbur said...

For many years, I've taken a generic or store brand caffeine pill with water upon rising. Easier, quicker, inexpensive and less teeth staining.

tim maguire said...

JK Brown said...First off, blended coffee drinks are not coffee. They are milk and sugar with a shot of coffee.

Get off my lawn!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I like my coffee the way we prepare it at home. De colador.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

My initial intuition was that ice coffee was coffee that got stale and instead of trowing out, the put some ice and sugar in it and called it ice coffee. I may have been wrong about that. Now that I know it’s a LGBTQ+ community thing.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

My initial intuition was that ice coffee was coffee that got stale and instead of trowing out, the put some ice and sugar in it and called it ice coffee. I may have been wrong about that. Now that I know it’s a LGBTQ+ community thing.

stlcdr said...

I hate iced coffee: by extension, I hate those who drink it?

Talking about loosing ones mind.

alanc709 said...

Same reason there's tea and iced tea. Drinks traditionally served hot don't need the added adjective "hot"

JaimeRoberto said...

I was drinking iced coffee in the early '90s because it was too darn hot in Chicago in the summer to drink hot coffee. My coffee is not your costume!

Readering said...

Never been asked to specify if I am ordering hot. But have taken to ordering "drip".

J L Oliver said...

Does drinking day-old tepid coffee count as gay or is that something else?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“Does Anyone Drink Hot Coffee Anymore? Even in the dead of winter, cold drinks account for 60 percent of Starbucks beverage sales. Is the hot cup of joe on its way out?"

The coffee aficionados no longer go to Starbucks. Also, I assume that the cold drinks stat includes Frappuccino’s, which compares more closely to a milkshake than to a cup of hot coffee. Another issue is that some folks, like me, like our coffee to cool to a lukewarm temperature before drinking. Scalded tongue syndrome from that first impatient sip of coffee in the morning ruins your whole day. So do you play scalded tongue roulette with a beverage that is served too hot in a container that is designed to hold the heat for as long as possible? Or do you settle for a safe iced coffee?

realestateacct said...

I once asked for black iced coffee in a diner and got a waitress who claimed they didn't have it. I explained that you put ice in the glass then pour in the coffee. I offered to pay an extra 50 cents for the ice so we were able to work it out.

Carol said...

"insist that hot coffee was effective in cooling you down "

There was always That Guy who would bring that up, too. Got to be tiresome. (Not you Ann. I was thinking of it too.) When you're a young female, men always troll you with this stuff.

Cold absorbs heat. Physics 101.

So it may not technically work out in this application, but if it feels good do it!

Does it work in reverse? I stopped using ice in my water because it made me feel colder in winter. Cold drinks give me chills if I'm not active.

Michael K said...

Blogger Lem Ozuna from the Braves said...

My initial intuition was that ice coffee was coffee that got stale and instead of trowing out, the put some ice and sugar in it and called it ice coffee.


We make coffee every morning. My wife pours a cup and puts it in the freezer. I add cream and sweetener to mine.

Andrew said...

I see you gave this a "homophobia" tag.

May I suggest creating a "gay bullshit" tag?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

If we are indeed at a linguistic fork in the road I am firmly with Althouse in believing that coffee is did and always shall mean hot coffee. Of course. It’s incumbent on the Johnny-come-latelies to use new terms (or frappe) for their modified tooth-melting coffee and sugar concoctions.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Now Starbucks did make an outstanding coffee ice cream a few years back. Delicious rich coffee flavor completely unlike their hot product. The ice cream we loved probably had all the same ingredients that I just mocked in the iced coffees. Okay. I’m a dessert hypocrite in more ways than you can imagine.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Waaaay off topic but recalling the Starbucks Coffee ice cream reminded me of another temporary delight. Ben and Jerry’s (I know!) test-marketed a sorbet in Palm Springs when we lived there a few years ago: sour lemon and raspberry swirl with the lemon part being very sour. So good. Bought all we could carry. But it never came back. I was hoping for a sour revolution on the scale of the ranch dressing or siracha crazes, pumpkin spice and candy cane-like seasonal appearances. Nope. Maybe we should do it. We already have the lemon trees. Hmmm.

n.n said...

I see you gave this a "homophobia" tag.

Homophobia, or, more inclusively, transphobia, is a disorder through projection.

May I suggest creating a "gay bullshit" tag?

An article of cultural appropriation. Hardly "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree". Bullshit, indeed.

Kevin said...

I prefer iced coffee drinks because I'm drinking coffee to wake up, while warm drinks make me feel cozy and sleepy. There's no need to introduce that pushme-pullyou into the equation, if the goal of the coffee is to be awake and energized.

The idea that it has anything to do with gay people is simply stupid. Right there in the article it says 60% of drinks, but gays are only 2-3% of the population. Either that population does nothing but hit Starbucks every hour of every day and kick everyone else out the door, or they are profoundly exaggerating their effect on the company

James K said...

I once asked for black iced coffee in a diner and got a waitress who claimed they didn't have it. I explained that you put ice in the glass then pour in the coffee. I offered to pay an extra 50 cents for the ice so we were able to work it out.

Reminiscent of the famous Diner scene in Five Easy Pieces.

I also drink only hot coffee regardless of the outside temperature, never iced. But Starbucks has become like Dairy Queen for teenagers grown-ups with seemingly 90% of the orders for drinks full of whipped cream, sugar, caramel, and cocoa.

rcocean said...

Iced Tea seems normal. Iced Coffee seems wacky and abnormal.

Discuss.

TaeJohnDo said...

I don't understand/care for/appreciate iced coffee. I have a Nespresso Machine and they send a few sample capsules when you order from them. This last order included two capsules to make iced coffee. They will either sit near the machine until I throw them out or say screw it and drink them hot.

Does this prove I'm either gay or bi, or does it demonstrate I'm homophobic? I get so confused lately....

Readering said...

With Mike on ice cream.

Ted said...

Iced coffee (including at Starbucks) used to be just plain hot coffee poured over ice, which made it watery and unpleasant.

But the advent of cold brew -- which is strong and cold from the get-go, while avoiding the bitter flavors that come from hot-water brewing -- has made it infinitely better.

But that's just a quality issue, and has nothing to do with identifiers of sexuality. Although I add whole milk and generic Splenda to mine, which I'm pretty sure proves I'm straight.

Joe Smith said...

'When I was in Japan in the early/mid 80s you could just buy cans of cold coffee out of vending machines.'

Still very common everywhere, especially in the neighborhood side streets of Tokyo and any city really.

I would have loved to have lived in Japan during those days.

I probably would have stayed : )

Quaestor said...

Appropriated culture is better than no culture at all, right? Right? RIGHT?!

KellyM said...

Put me in the group of only hot coffee drinkers. Even in the hottest summer weather with the humidity around 100%. Never a fan of iced coffee - to me it was too much like coffee ice cream (which I love) but melted and not refreshing.

I was recently in Ashland, Oregon with friends, and visited a very lovely and popular ice cream parlor. I was convinced to try something that had a vaguely Italian sounding name, but was simply a scoop of coffee gelato in a cup with a shot of hot espresso poured over the top. It was amazing! You got both hot and cold at the same time but the frozen gelato didn't get ruined. Gonna have to try that at home.

Caligula said...

Stores seem to sell plenty of prepared coffee in vacuum-sealed bottles. The few times I tried drinking it I realized it was not "coffee" as I understand the word, but the sort of coffee-candy sold at Starbucks.

Caligula said...

Stores seem to sell plenty of prepared coffee in vacuum-sealed bottles. The few times I tried drinking it I realized it was not "coffee" as I understand the word, but the sort of coffee-candy sold at Starbucks.

todd galle said...

Well, if beverages (I assume either hot or cold), are claimable, I culturally claim 2 ice cubes in a glass of water, next to two fingers of Glen Moray in a second glass. Scots have been second class members of the UK since 1707, so I figure as reparations I can claim two. That's how this works, right?

Mikey NTH said...

I recall a Wodehouse novel "Uneasy Money" from the early 19-teens where a chacter had iced coffee.

I like mine hot and black. Like my heart.

*ahem*