Dear Coffee Snobs,

Coffee with milk. Period.

No, I don’t like ”bodega coffee” that does taste like water, or is filled with cream and sugar even if you order it ”black.” But does this mean that I care where my coffee is roasted, and if it has a bold or round finish? I don’t think so. All I want is a decent cup of coffee that I can enjoy in peace. What I mean by this it that the last thing I need on top of the price and tax of my drink is someone pointing out coffee-facts, as if these should be part of every sophisticated persons life. Welcome to the world  of Coffee Snobs.

I have considered myself as a real Coffee Geek for quite a while. Maybe this also is why Coffee Snobs bothers me so much. Because remember, these two types of “coffee people” are not the same. Let me explain.

Coffee with milk. Or, excuse me, "Short soy-cappuccino with a smooth foam, 152 degrees warm."

For a while I worked in a coffee shop here in New York, and enjoyed my job, doing hearts and flowers in the milk foam of people’s latte’s. But then I started to notice coffee shops around me, where both the baristas (the one’s who makes your coffee) and the customers were obsessed with – no, not coffee – but vocabulary. Short lattes, solid foam, organic fare trade coffee ONLY. And not to forget the ”cuppings,” coffee tastings, where you sit around and slurp coffee (the louder the better). Is it tangy and nutty, with a touch of plum and…smoke!? Oh, this means it must be from Guatemala! Coffee had become the new wine – something fashionable and sophisticated. From this day on, I swore to keep my coffee knowledge to myself and never become one of them – the Coffee Snobs.

I am not here to tell anyone they can’t demand their coffee to be steamed at 152 degrees, or forbid people to spend hours debating which coffee roastery is the best in town. If these are things you want to put down energy on, sure, go ahead and do it. I just have one little request: Do not look down at us ”regular” coffee drinkers, and do not correct our orders. And no, I do not only speak to all you latte-art obsessed baristas. All you snobby coffee buyers, this considers you too – especially you. If you know exactly how your coffee should be done, I would suggest you start working in a coffee shop. Or just stay at that one place where you once were served this perfectly smooth-foamed, nutty and earthy soy-latte with a bold finish. Oh, and for your information, the heart in your cappuccino foam was not there because the barista liked you, but because he likes his own artistic hand.

Dear Coffee Snobs, please keep your valuable knowledge to yourself, and let me enjoy my coffee as what it is – a plain drink.