The Art of Coffee
Today, between walking to the post office and getting a hundred little errands out of the way (like buying a few more Christmas cards (that aren't in Welsh) and purchasing a bucket full of hob nobs to mail to my parents) I made myself a pot of coffee.
There is nothing like a good cup of coffee on a cold, rainy day in December. Today it was mizzling out (misty and drizzling) while I walked from shop to shop so it really wasn't worth the effort of bringing an umbrella. Its the sort of weather where you are basically walking through a puddle, so regardless of what you do (unless you're walking around in boots and waders) you will end up damp.
A few years ago I read a Cosmo that suggested a list of things that a girl should be able to do by the time she turns 30. I found the list to be lame, and joked that it was things to learn to do on a long weekend. It included things like make a proper introduction (for an example of this, I refer you to the seen in Bridget Jones's Diary where her friends coach her on the subject:
Shaz: Sheila, this is Daniel. Daniel, this is Sheila. Sheila enjoys horse-riding and comes from New Zealand. Daniel is in publishing....
You get the picture. You tell people things about each other so that they can have a getting to know conversation. (The goal is, of course, to say things that you know the other person would be interested in. Like, you wouldn't introduce a physicist friend to an astrologer by saying, "Oh, you're both into stars!" because you would likely offend one or both of them. I digress. ) and how to make a proper cup of coffee. I laughed out loud when I read the last one because I've been making proper cups of coffee for nearly ten years now. But, while I was drinking my cup of coffee, I realized something.
Coffee is an acquired taste. But, more than that it is something that separates people. You can tell something about people by how they take their coffee. There are people that drink because it is a cool thing to do. These people tend to prefer coffee drinks that have a lot of milk in them and also frequently something sugary. There are people that like it as a vehicle for caffeine, and drink copious amounts of it. There are people that don't love it but have come to appreciate and will have the occasional cup. And, then there are the people that love it. That prefer it black but have been known to also take it with milk and sugar and whipped cream or over ice. And, it is my opinion that these people make the best coffee. They make the best coffee because a good cup of joe is more art than science and art is born out of passion. Now, it is true that the water and the beans effect the coffee. How the beans are roasted and what temperature the water is heated to before it is poured over the grounds. And, the grind of the coffee itself. And, you can appreciate coffee and be nit-picky about all of these things, getting the water to the right temperature, using good beans from reputable growers that are properly roasted, making sure you have the right grind for your machine, but even with all of that you could still be missing something.
