I wrote a fiction series with six characters. Each one drinks a different coffee.
I didn't plan it that way. But somewhere around the tenth story, I realized: what someone orders at the bar says more about them than anything they actually say.
Here's the lineup:
Lena — Long Black ☕
Espresso and water. No milk, no sugar. Clean, sharp, nothing to hide. The bartender stopped asking her order a few episodes in. She walks in, he just makes it.
Mark — Pour-over 🫗
The slowest extraction method there is. You control the water temperature, the flow rate, every single step. That's Mark — always three moves ahead, planting traps inside routine work.
Leo — Flat White 🤍
Looks simple. Demands the most craft. Easygoing on the surface, pure technical muscle underneath.
P — Espresso 💥
Shortest. Strongest. Gone in one sip. Zero decoration. Just like P — zero pronouns, zero inner monologue, zero small talk.
Alex — Latte 🥛
The most milk, the gentlest cup. He's the quietest of the six. Slowest to react emotionally. Fastest to pull up the data.
Derek — Americano 🫠
![Derek — Americano]
Espresso diluted with water. Looks like a regular coffee, but the core is still espresso. Loud and casual on the outside. Wounded pride on the inside.
Today I had an Apple-C Americano with sparkling water,
from Luckin Coffee — a chain in China that keeps inventing wild flavor combos 🧪. Coconut foam lattes, cheese cream lattes, even a baijiu-infused one with Moutai. This one hit way too hard. For about ten minutes I was convinced I could talk to 30 AI agents at once — I test an agent platform for a living — then I looked at my screen and realized I'd been talking to the same one the whole time. 😅
That got me thinking: what does everyone here drink while they work?
So — what's your drink? 👇
Doesn't have to be coffee. Tea, cola, energy drinks, plain water, whatever keeps you going.
Got any interesting local coffee combos where you live? And if you had to describe your work style as a drink, what would it be?