Would you grab a coffee with all of your Facebook friends? Well, one 28-year-old Australian student, Matt Kulesza, has vowed to do just that.
Back in September, Kulesza launched his Tumblr page “1000+ coffees” with the idea to grab a coffee with every single one of his 1000+ Facebook friends within three years. Since he first launched his project, Kulesza has had over 50 coffee meetups with a variety of Facebook friends ranging from exes to passing hostel bunkies. After reading about his impressive goal, I was able to get in contact with Kulesza for an interview in which he described his projected stream of coffee dates as “an exercise in remembering to socialize with and get to know people outside of the ‘book.”
Like many others, Kulesza looked at his Facebook and considered deleting those less familiar faces. But the act of deleting people from his cyber world inspired him to reconnect with them in person rather than completely disconnect.
“The question I asked myself before hitting delete was ‘could I get a coffee with this person?’ [so] I decided to put this idea into practice,” Kulesza explained.
As an integral part of the culture in Melbourne, coffee had been ingrained in him and his daily routine since he first started drinking his “sickly sweet coffees with gross caramel/white chocolate syrups” as a teenager. But more than his personal preference for coffee, Kulesza viewed coffee as the best way to truly connect with people.
“I chose coffee for the project because as much as I love an [alcoholic] drink, I wanted to catch up with people without the social lubricant of alcohol helping things along," he said. "Melbourne has more amazing cafes than I’ll be able to visit in one lifetime.”
He certainly has plenty of opportunities to try out new coffee drinks and cafes now that he has over one thousand coffees ahead of him. His coffee tastes have changed since he was a teenager and now he usually grabs a a double espresso or a cold drip made "with some really excellent, fresh coffee beans." After each date, he writes a blog entry updating his readers on his Facebook friend’s life, what they chatted about and even what coffees facilitated the meeting.
In some ways, coffee is helping to change and add meaning to Kulesza’s life. He told Elite Daily that this project has been “one of the most rewarding things [He's] ever done with [his] life.” And maybe his journey with coffee with inspire others to reconnect with long lost friends over a nice cup of coffee as well.
-Blog post written by Rachel Eisen, San Francisco Account Manager
