72 reasons for coffee. Go.

YAYYYYYYYY

I’m at the dentist, but I can send you stuff once I’m home!

Hope teeth okay.

I could only make it to 55.

1. To sip dramatically while someone tells you a story
2. For getting through meetings that should have been emails
3. For an exfoliating scrub because allegedly the caffeine makes your lumps go away but even if it doesn’t, your shower will smell good
4. To drink when you’re out of whiskey
5. To drink when you’re out of wine
6. To kill time in the airport
7. For taking a principled stance about trade and the ecosystem so you can show people how much you read
8. For filling the novelty mugs you get from people who know you best or don’t know you at all
9. For perfuming the air when your officemate heats up brussels sprouts and cabbage
10. For the love of beans
11. To grind loudly and cover the sound of your neighbors fucking
12. To fill your cupholders
13. To make your garbage look more like garbage
14. To rub into a slab of beef before it meets the grill
15. To buy time in uncomfortable conversations
16. To sniff in between testing perfumes (although smelling your own sleeve clears the olfactory senses much better)
17. For rotting the teeth
18. To drink with whiskey
19. To drink with horchata
20. To drink with Bailey’s
21. Because who likes drinking water?
22. To provide barista jobs for young people in the arts
23. To leave brown rings on ungraded papers
24. To spill on the train
25. To surprise your tattoo artist
26. For stating elitist opinions about roast and region
27. One of the only drugs you can do at work without getting funny looks/fired
28. For suggesting an activity to do with someone you want to date because drinks will lead to a one-night stand and you’d like to see them many more times
29. For warming your fingers during the polar vortex
30. To mix with lemonade (trust me)
31. For something to do with your hands while NPR is on
32. For an excuse to sit in the café from open until close while you work on your second manuscript and fend off creepy smiles from singles
33. To gauge the cost of living in your area
34. To draw foam and cream designs into for your social media pages
35. To increase your heart rate
36. To excite the bowels
37. To pair with cigarettes
38. To fill the thermos you will reheat no less than 3 times on any given weekday
39. To sip with good company after a fine meal (see aforementioned beef)
40. To percolate. What else can percolate?
41. To remind you of simpler times
42. For slicing through your hangover with ruthless efficiency
43. For carafes
44. For pour-overs
45. For filling K-cups, wretched little things that they are
46. For fetching on your unpaid internship where you will allegedly gain invaluable work experience
47. To boost your metabolism (probably)
48. Because it’s delicious by itself
49. Because otherwise you’ll chip a tooth on that biscotti
50. For bathing ladyfingers as you prepare an enormous tiramisu
51. For procrastinating
52. For making excuses about lethargy
53. To give you some mild twitches after cup #4
54. To drink as a sign of adulthood
55. To burn your mouth and keep you humble

Rita Mookerjee's poetry is featured or forthcoming in Berfrois, Lavender Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Occulum and others. Her critical work has been featured in the Routledge Companion of Literature and Food, the Bloomsbury Handbook to Literary and Cultural Theory, and the Bloomsbury Handbook of Twenty-First Century Feminist Theory. She is a PhD candidate at Florida State University specializing in contemporary Caribbean literature.

Russell Bennetts co-founded Queen Mob's Teahouse in 2014.