Times when the future seems uncertain and the horizon often looks dark. In such times people have always looked beyond themselves, to something bigger, something greater to believe in. 

Like coffee. 

“What??” I hear you asking, but if you were to take a stroll around Launceston on any given morning you will witness the rise of a new philosophy: coffee philosophy. 

Cafe billboards are no longer there to tout the specials of the day, but to impart the wisdom born of too many espresso’s imbibed before 8am. 

“Coffee is not the question, it is the answer,” muses one. 

“Coffee: because slapping a co-worker is not okay,” advises another (sound advice actually). 

Yet another proclaims, “I think, therefore I’ve had my coffee”.

Coffee, that most pious of drinks, first became a religion and has now transcended that and become its very own philosophy.

Gone are the days of Christian devition, Buddhism is so last year, Hinduism – what’s that? Coffee philosophy is where it’s at.

If you have any doubt that there is such a thing as coffee philosophy, set your mind at rest. A simple Google search for “coffee philosophy” will reveal 60,400,000 results. It’s a thing. Google official. 

When you face the day, uncertain whether Trump could make the global outlook any more bleak by the end of it, not knowing if Kim Jong-un will have started a nuclear war, can anyone be blamed for falling back on those simple pleasures, those moments of caffeine-induced insight?

So take a walk around the Launceston cafe’s (don’t bother before 10am though, they probably won’t be open) and soak up the wisdom of this newest philosophy and join the growing ranks of coffee philosophers.