Let’s bring back the Coffee Klatch

Kaffeeklatsch comes from the German words for coffee and gossip, and was long known as a women’s group that partook of both. “Gossip” in these groups was really just talk of domestic importance, which was talk of just about everything. These days, we might be missing out on the best parts of those informal gatherings. It’s time to bring back the coffee klatch.

If you were a man in the late 1600s, living in Paris or London or Hamburg, you may have been among the first to drink coffee at a European coffeehouse. You may have enjoyed a cup while discussing mathematics with Sir Isaac Newton or poetry with Jonathan Swift. You may have helped found the London Stock Exchange. 

If you were a woman in the late 1600s, living in Paris or London or Hamburg, maybe you too found yourself at a coffeehouse, though probably not, unless you were engaged in some kind of work. For all but the most wealthy of women, you more likely witnessed the coffee revolution from your home.    

As the centuries rolled on, coffeehouses and at-home coffee gatherings continued. In both cases, the location itself set parameters on the conversation. Where you drank dictated, to a degree, what you discussed. 

While coffeehouses specialized around topics such as science or business or literature, at-home gatherings, especially those hosted by women and for women, focused on domestic life. And here’s the thing about domestic life that still holds true today—our day-to-day life is as affected by the politics of the day as it is by childcare and our favorite recipe for roast chicken. And so women then as now discussed it all.  

What about happy hour?

It’s true that happy hour may be the modern stand-in for the coffee klatch. At happy hour, we gather to discuss the news of the day, our work, our home lives, our plans. It’s a time carved out to be in community, something we desperately crave and need. It’s also a time to drink booze, with a focus on “happiness” that doesn't always gel with our current realities.  

And there’s an interesting connection between booze-centered gatherings and coffee-centered gatherings that may have changed the history of the world. 

According to Michael Pollan “Before caffeine came to Europe, people were drunk or buzzed most of the day. People would have alcohol with breakfast. Water was contaminated with disease, but alcohol, because of the fermentation process, would kill a lot of microbes.”

In other words, before we started drinking lots of coffee and tea, and when we lived in cities without access to clean water, all of our gatherings were booze-centered gatherings. Historians like Micheal Pollan speculate that coffee changed more than what we drank together—but also what we talked about and did together. 

Drinking coffee lends itself to clear thinking and higher productivity. Drinking alcohol…doesn’t. It’s no wonder that coffee-fueled conversation tended towards big ideas and the means to see them through. 

There’s something else about happy hour that functions in a very different way than coffee gatherings. Happy hour is, by design, a time to sever ourselves from the stresses of work life and domestic life.

We are told we should enjoy a glass of wine or a stiff cocktail and relax. The concept hinges on the separate spheres of work, home, and play. If these spheres were ever truly separate, those days are two years gone now. 

Let’s bring back the klatsch

The coffee klatch doesn’t ask you to put aside life, and you don’t even need to be happy. In fact, you can hold a coffee klatch on a Monday morning before your first Zoom meeting.

The purpose is community and the topic is that which is on the community mind, from navigating school closings (again!) to strategizing a career switch, swapping plant-based dinner recipes, or attending the City Council hearings about the budget. (Really only one of you needs to go for all of you to be informed.)

Happy hour can still hold court for those times when wine and celebration fill the need of the day. Let’s bring back the coffee klatsch for its own sake and in its own place. To fortify our communities, strengthen bonds, swap ideas, inspire and encourage each other, and then get it all done. 

Maybe you’ll be talking to the next Marie Curie or Toni Morrison at your next klatsch. Maybe you’ll help found the Austin Sock Exchange. 

(Oh, and you can also make coffee mocktails if you want to do a happy hour/coffee klatch mashup.)