This is an ode to drinking coffee.
However, my love of drinking coffee also includes making it. If you find making homemade coffee a chore, please try this. Carve out one or two small, unnoticed minutes in the morning. Take them all for yourself. Make the coffee however you do, then use those private personal minutes to immerse yourself in the first and second sips of your coffee. Take the time to savor the taste. If you’re feeling adventurous, ask yourself what you like and don’t like about it. I promise, if you can give yourself this ritual, it will make a big difference in how you feel about making a morning cup of coffee.
My Favorite Thing about Drinking Coffee
You see, my favorite thing about coffee is when I try a new bean and it turns out utterly delightful. There’s this moment at around the second sip where the taste is really filling out, and that’s when I know it’s something amazing and I nailed the preparation.
The other day I tried a new bag of coffee by making a cup of Japanese-style flash-chilled iced coffee. It was a local brand, a medium roast, from the Terrazu region, that cost about $12. Most coffee pros say not to skimp on buying high-quality coffee beans, because even a total novice can be successful in buying good beans, leading to a better final cup of coffee. But I’ve had a lot of success with random $10 to $15 bags, and they’re just about right for me as a daily drinker.
This cup was SO good that I sighed out loud. Being a random, untried bag made it all the better. I used my usual pour over method, and the result was a rich, velvety mouthfeel, bright notes of coco, honey, and just the right amount of acidity without being too bitter. I don’t love bitter coffee.
It was so good I immediately made another cup.
Trying new coffee beans is what keeps me coming back to coffee. Well, that and the caffeine addiction. The ritual is lovely, and fatigue management is amazing. And of course, I adore the way loving coffee adds an anchor and some connection to any travel, drawing me to the weird, personal, and most-lauded coffee spots in a new location. What’s not to love?
How to Love Coffee Every Morning
It took time to realize how much I love this moment. I had to make a point of giving myself a few minutes of ritual every morning. Whether you work from home or in an office, I think you have to find the time to pause and savor your coffee to develop this deep, abiding appreciation. When my kids were young and I faced an hour-long commute into work, to get that moment of java and peace, I woke up a bit earlier in the morning, and included my (younger) kids in the coffee-making process.
Now I get to it after I send them off to school. It’s the first moment of peace and silence, when I can be utterly present, mindful even. Meditation via coffee?
Be sure to give yourself to the process, if only for a few moments. Savor the first sip slowly. Maybe even silently ask yourself, “What do I like about it? What do I dislike?” Even if you’ve made a bad cup, you’ll identify what about it was bad, which is the start of a new adventure.
Even a Bad Cup Can Be Really Good
What about when the coffee you’re making sucks? There are countless blogs about how to improve, including mine. So that’s one thing. But even bad
coffee can be a good experience. For example, yesterday I made a truly disappointing cup of coffee. It was my second time brewing with a new
bean, and I still don’t know what I did wrong, but it came out too dark, tasting burnt and murky.
Maybe I had the grinder set too fine, or perhaps it was my bad habit of reusing coffee filters… But either way, instead of getting to celebrate finding a new bean I love – this bad cup came from beans I bought at a random ice cream shop we visited during a long weekend in Nicaragua – I was left wishing I had chosen to make something else for my morning cup. I barely finished it, even with too much oat milk to help smooth out the cup.
Today, I brewed the same bean, but I paid attention to the details, took my time, involved my son (and made him some tea), and it came out MUCH better. The progression from bad to good, from letdown to one of my favorite coffee moments…
that was exactly what I love about coffee.
