The great iced coffee debate of 2026 is the latest submission to the young-people-just-don’t-get-it discourse and, of course, it’s as polarizing as ever.

Recruiters say you shouldn’t bring iced coffee to interviews, while young people are (rightly) asking: what’s the big deal? It’s one of those conversations that makes me cringe, given just how eagerly it springs up from the generational divide plaguing mainstream culture. And as usual, gen Z are cast as the entitled morons who want to live life with no rules or responsibilities, all to the detriment of the millennials and gen X-ers who have to deal with them.

Iced-coffeegate blew up on social media after the president of a recruiting firm shared a TikTok saying the drink “looks a little too casual” to hiring managers. With thousands of outraged responses across TikTok and Twitter/X, I was stunned to see so many people up in arms about someone bringing a coffee........

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