The blaring of an alarm in the morning is the most soul-crushing sound known
to mankind. The noise heralds an end to the blissful reign of sleep and awakens the realities of the coming day. In the mo- ments immediately following the assault of the alarm clock, when the brain is groggily attempting to surface from the depths of sleep, only one possible salvation exists: a hot cup of coffee.

Mornings are always the coldest part of the day because the sun has not warmed the air temperature since it set the evening before. The first sip of coffee chases that chill from your bones. The heat from the mug hits your lips before the coffee itself does, and you breathe in the steam.

The smell of a hot cup of coffee is one
of the most therapeutic things in the entire world. Iced coffee has a completely different, inferior smell than hot coffee. Iced coffee does not have steam that wafts upward to your nose, engulfing your olfac- tory senses in a rich fragrance reminiscent of your favorite coffee shop.

Iced coffee has none of the charm that is derived from holding a mug of hot coffee in your hands, solely existing in the mo- ment just before you take a drink.

Inhaling the aroma of coffee is only half the experience, however. Drinking the first sip of coffee in the morning is like ascending to a higher plane of existence.

Before, you were a mumbling mess with incoherent thoughts and eyes that were fighting to gently close and succumb to mind-numbing sleep.

But after the coffee has burned your lips and singed your tongue from its delicious heat, you are able to wade out of your sleep-deprived mind and face the day.

Not only does this beauty captured in a simple cup of coffee enable you to survive for another moment, it allows you to look forward to the day ahead of you. It allows you to wake up every day as if you have something great waiting, which without fail, you do: a hot cup of caffeine in its original, uncompromised form. No ice cubes.

Converting to iced coffee is a crime against the integrity of the greatest drink ever invented. I simply do not know how people survive without coffee, although I suppose it makes more sense if it is pollut- ed with unnecessary ice.

Iced coffee simply does not provide you with the same sensation that hot coffee does. Coffee is not a mere beverage; it is an elixir that produces an emotion, an intangible sensation that alters your brain chemistry and elevates your outlook on the day. Hot coffee trickles into the depths of your soul and repairs all the damage that has been done by that treacherous villain, the alarm clock.