WITH her turquoise top, Dayglo trainers and Hello Kitty mobile phone, Jeon Geum Ju fits right in among the young latte-sippers in a Starbucks in downtown Seoul.
"The Internet industry has become a scapegoat," she said, "partly due to a mythology that's built up about young, latte-swilling, S.U.V.-driving dot-com millionaires".
The Olsen sisters did their version, and photographers like Steven Meisel recreated images of young Hollywood with a latte in one hand and a designer bag in the other.
THE Starbucks at Lenox Avenue and 125th Street was filled the other day with symbols of a changing Harlem: white tourists, speaking French and German; black professionals talking about their businesses; and young white newcomers, sipping latte and talking about the brownstones they owned a few blocks away.
In search of coffee we head to the nearby Rose theatre foyer, which is full of latte-loving young mothers encouraging their offspring to let off some steam.
A corner artisanal shop sells local handmade designs; a new burger joint advertises $10 gourmet burgers on its outdoor menus; and young patrons sip $4 lattes at a hip, independent coffeeshop nearby.
The part left standing is now the city's showpiece district, its cobbled lanes lined with cosy cafes selling plate-sized cinnamon buns to tourists and lattepappor (latte dads, or young fathers off work on parental leave).
But there we were, awkwardly clutching our steaming lattes as a young woman quietly wept in front of us.
He also won easily among young people and better educated voters ("Latte liberals" in the dismissive phrase of Mrs Clinton's operatives, most of whom seem to have Starbucks cups firmly in hand as they say it).
Who, for instance, are all those gorgeous young sophisticates sipping fat-free soy lattes at three on a Wednesday?
