In the popular imagination, hackers and coders subsist on Soylent alone. However, according to a trend piece over at KQED, a new beverage of choice is the source of strength for technologists in San Francisco. But new it isn't — In fact, it's an old favorite in Germany.

“If you’ve been to Berlin, Club Mate is everywhere,” Andy Isaacson, the cofounder of the "hackerpsace" Noisebridge, clues KQED in to the Yerba Mate beverage “It’s at every train station, every subway station, every falafel stand — [and] they’ve got falafel stands like the Mission has bacon-wrapped hot dog [stands].”

Isaacson first tried Club Mate, highly caffeinated but with less sugar than the likes of Red Bull or Monster, while in Berlin. "Six hours later, I realized it was 2 AM and I hadn’t yawned once,” he said. Club Mate as a company has had eschewed advertising, relying on grassroots popularization in the hacking community.

"It gives you that up, it helps your brain work better for a little while," says Isaacson, but "the flavor isn’t as syrupy as American soda. I find that it’s a smoother high. It doesn’t have as much of a kick and a drop as you get with soda like Coke or Jolt.”

Employees at German photo sharing app EyeEm, who opened a San Francisco bureau, are also a fan of the drink. Their Community Manager describes it as “like mate tea, but sweeter and really refreshing with ice.” But who else is drinking Club Mate? Is this on tap at Facebook HQ yet? And what happens when the coding set discovers something stronger... like hard drugs? I hear you can write a lot of code on hard drugs.