Meet With A Poem This World Coffee Day

In a bid to help people harbour meaningful connections in an increasingly digital world, Viennese coffee roasters Julius Meinl is encouraging people to invest in their friendships with its annual Meet With A Poem initiative.

Taking place in over 25 countries on World Coffee Day (October 1st), consumers are invited to meet a friend over a coffee or tea and rekindle their friendship using poetry as a creative outlet for expression.

With communication now defined by swipes and clicks, our friendships are taking a toll, existing primarily on apps and networking sites. We make plans, share news and allow our conversations to exist on-screen without meeting in-person for months at a time, embracing the easy intimacy of short messages that construct the illusion of a strong social network.

Yet online communication often leaves us feeling isolated, with screen time dramatically affecting how we experience human connection. Now, we are beginning to see a dramatic shift away from a culture that standardises always-on connectivity and with this comes an awareness to schedule real-time catch-ups with friends.

Julius Meinl’s unique scheme is encouraging people to come together and bring more poetry into the world, by using tea or coffee as the fuel to ignite more poetic and creative moments in life.

The Meet With A Poem initiative aims to help bring people together “in real life”. The idea is simple, on World Coffee Day, those who take their friendship offline and meet in coffee houses can claim a 2-for-1 coffee at Julius Meinl locations- all in exchange for co-writing a story or poem explaining how they met. Consumers are invited to share a photo of their poem on social media to be in with the chance of having their poem turned into a song.

Julius Meinl’s global ambassador, platinum-selling singer-songwriter and coffee lover, JP Cooper knows the importance of written communication to express oneself- drawing parallels with song writing and poetry.

He comments: “It’s no secret that social media gives us a false sense of connectedness, encouraging us to communicate in half-written sentences and emoticons.
“It is easy to lose sight of the power of language when we communicate on WhatsApp or by text, and I hope that the initiative will help more people to favour real world friendship and realise that language- verbal or written- has the ability to build stronger, more heart-felt connections.”

For this next campaign, JP Cooper will be partnering with his long-term friend and music producer, Hannah V, the session musician behind major powerhouses such a Rihanna, Jessie J and Jason Derulo. Together, they advocate poetry as an outlet for creative expression and connection.

She comments: “Working in the music industry, I’ve learnt a lot about the benefits of experimenting with different forms of creative expression. Each artist has their unique approach to song-writing but I have always been inspired by JP’s use of poetry in his writing process.”

Julius Meinl’s CEO, Marcel Löffler commented: “Julius Meinl has a rich history of inspiring writers the world over. With this year’s Meet With A Poem initiative, we want to encourage more people than ever before to try their hand at writing poetry, with coffee and tea serving as the creative fuel. In doing so, we hope to prove that poetry has the ability to reconnect friends, and that it can be used as a tool for expression.”

To find out how you can take part, visit meinlcoffee.com. Follow the social conversations using #MeetWithAPoem and #PoetryForChange.