#9 coffee

Coffee. It’s the Gatorade for journalists. Just a mention of of the brew can be enough to excite the loins of any journalist.

It’s the juice that keeps journalists writing until 11 p.m., after a long boring productive city hall meeting, and be back in the newsroom at 8 a.m. for the morning budget meeting.

In a pinch, 7-11 will do, Starbucks is better, but none compare to that cup of free-trade, all-organic, Sumatran blend a journalist will consistently make him or herself late for work or an assignment.

It is not uncommon to see a group of journalists gathered around a pot of coffee or in coffeeshop, sipping on some brew with notebooks tucked in back pockets and talking shop.

Though not preferred, in-house coffee, that pot that just sits and steams in the break room, will do during a crunch or before that second round of revisions on that 90-inch weekend centerpiece with two sidebars, graph and seven breakouts.