Amazon packages may be scary fast and shamefully convenient, but they have yet to arrive with steaming coffee. They’re also not a textured communal experience (read here to find out why The New York Times thinks human contact is the newest luxury good).

Which may explain the growing tendency to caffeinate all sorts of urban spaces.

Custom cappuccinos have spread from bookstores to bank and hotel lobbies, gyms, clothing and home good stores, chocolate boutiques, barbershops, cocktail bars, Lexus Intersect accessories, and even a high-end car wash (see my post, Cleansed, August 18, 2018). Ditto churches and museums. No matter where you go, it seems that specialty coffee just the way you like it is there, too.

Even florists have joined the hybrid-retail trend. In Midtown East, Remi Flower and Coffee Shop sprinkles rose petals and lavender on cappuccinos. On the Upper West Side, the PlantShed sells custom coffee (would you like that with oat milk?), matcha tea and super-trendy Dirty Lemon charcoal drinks inside an enchanting indoor forest of small trees, hardy plants, terrariums, ferns, succulents, and fresh flowers. Cozy café tables in a garden setting add to the relaxing vibe. I got seduced into coffee to stay and flowers to go. Which, I guess, is exactly the point.