But First, Coffee

Do you know where this iconic phrase comes from? Well, I didn’t know till a couple of weeks ago when I found an article on Medium. ☕⁣
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In 2010 a guy called Topher McCulloch was browsing on Tumblr when he saw a photo of a desk that he liked and reblogged it with a simple note about the day’s priorities:

“𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚/𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩, 𝙘𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙚.”⁣
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The friend he reblogged that post from, made a post sharing his final phrasing only. From there, he shared it again to Flickr where someone told him to put it on a mug which he started making only a few dollars here and there from his store on Zazzle.⁣

But then, something weird started happening. He noticed his image was getting shared in style mood boards and on sites and Pinterest. It was flattering to see people liked the image, but, this being the internet, there was no credit and it wasn’t selling any more mugs.⁣
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Then came the versions that were sort of his, but not his… followed by the merchandise, coffee shop murals, Target has some t-shirts, even Primark festoons its Central Perk pajamas with the words.⁣
Other languages have capitalized on the phrase, too. Throw pillows come in German and in Spanish… You named it.⁣
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In 2014 he found out that someone else applied for trademark protection (the coffee shop mural owner). He expressed no ill will towards Alfred in his 2015 article. “I’m not saying that they did anything wrong by applying for a trademark,” he wrote. He also shared that he would “choose to believe the fantasy that the TM that’s been painted on to the mural and added to their website is a subtle nod to my initials.”⁣
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Now, he said he’s trying to be over it. He admits that a lot of the versions people have made are more beautiful than his, and that’s one of the exciting things about the internet’s natural urge to remix and repurpose.⁣
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Quite interesting learn about how a meme-type mantra can grow.⁣
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Now, here I am sharing another version of “But first, coffee” plus 2019 hyped baby Yoda, just because…☕⁣
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𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩, 𝙭𝙭𝙭. 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙗𝙚?