I adopted their lifestyle: working hectic shifts and then drinking in underground bars in Dalston till morning, dulling the ache in our legs with Dark and Stormies and showing up to work still buzzing from the night. I learned to use the particular language of third-wave coffee people. I watched videos on latte art and studied caffeine-extraction curves. I lectured customers who ordered “extra-hot lattes” about the optimum temperature for milk-protein stretchiness (sixty-five degrees Celsius), and brewed V60s and AeroPresses with the same somber ceremony of a priest preparing sacramental wine.
