Hacker fuel
One of the important elements of a subculture is its tendency to collectively select visible markers of membership in that culture: clothes, hairstyles, preferred products. Hackers as a culture are certainly not immune to this, but as a culture that prides itself on valuing accomplishment over image, the markers of membership in hacker culture tend to be functional outgrowths rather than stylistic flourishes.
Take, for example, the idea of “hacker drinks”. There are several different beverages that are closely associated with hackers (at least by other hackers and computer types). They have in common the property of being highly, highly caffeinated. This is because hackers will frequently stay up all night coding or working nonstop on projects.
In the United States, the two drinks most associated with hackers are Jolt Cola, and Mountain Dew (especially the Code Red variety). Of the two, Jolt is more old-school, while Mountain Dew has supplanted it likely since Jolt has become rarer and harder to find. Mountain Dew is a good example of the hacker community ignoring the marketing hype targeting the extreme sports enthusiast segment, and embracing it for its caffeine content.
In Germany, the drink of choice for hackers is called Club-Mate. Despite the English-looking name, it’s always pronounced as German, “kloob mah-teh”. True to form, Club-Mate is a highly caffeinated soda-like beverage. It’s not very sugary though, and the taste is vaguely like a hard cider, it’s apparently flavored with Peruvian yerba mate extract. According to wikipedia, the drink’s motto translates as “One gets used to it!”
As you might expect, Club-Mate is very popular here at the Congress. I had encountered it earlier, at C-base, and I actually had a really positive reaction the first time I tried it. It wasn’t an acquired taste at all for me. Other people, however have told me that they think it tastes “weird”. In any case, it keeps me awake and doesn’t devastate my stomach the way that coffee does.
Certainly hackers also drink coffee, but it has much less cultural cred. This may be because of coffee’s close association with the normal business world. In brief: coffee is a get-up-and-go-to-work drink while Club-Mate is a stay-up-all-night-coding drink.
I really like the last words! :-)