For the love of coffee

A writer's addiction journey:

A silver tray that shined full of promises for my 4 y.o.’s eyes (I guess I was around that age). Small, colourful cups. Might’ve been yellow or green. Sour cherry jam or rose sorbet. Cold water in transparent glasses. Dark, sweetish coffee.

That’s how my journey started, dear wonderers.

My great-grandmother was the mastermind, creating a sensory experience for her lady guests every week. And, unknowingly, an obsession for me.

Of course, I was invited. Probably with lots and lots of milk and a taste of the prohibited liquid — I don’t even remember that part!

The next episode that I remember after a great deal of soul searching is me proudly preparing coffee (both the ibrik and filter kinds) for my parents.

And after adolescence kicked in: a slow, but steady love affair with the one that starts my days and sometimes even ends them — my ultimate muse and probably my legal drug of choice.

Coffee.

It’s no wonder then, that after a confusing end of summer and an intense early September, this is my subject of research. And my inspiration.

Even my Instagram profile is coffee-overwhelmed.

But let’s get practical!

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, so to make it actionable, I decided to share it with you. That’s how a bit of 2021 looked for me, in coffee beans:

How I keep track of what coffee I buy — not the most efficient way. But so colourful! ^^

And here’s a Google sheet you can access and copy as you see fit if you want to further research your own tastes ;)

It looks something like this, nothing fancy:

A subjective analysis of my coffee habits

The context:

When I first thought about this research, I said I should buy only one origin and compare roasteries. I started with Ethiopia, the one that I realized I prefer, from multiple ventures both in specialty coffee shops and at home.

I failed. Miserably.

Other subjective variables intervened. So this is not much of a research, but an exploratory study in my hectic decision-making when it comes to coffee.

What influences me:

• I love asking the baristas for recommendations.

• The story. I’m a fool for good branding. (and yes, I work as a marketer!)

• If I see “honey” as a note on the label. In my inquiries so far, if it has a honey aftertaste, the chances are I will like it.

• If the notes “seem” acidic. I don’t like the heavily roasted and the “sour” aftertaste.

What I need to learn:

• How altitude works in terms of flavours.

• How the processing works for the flavour. As you’ll see in my doc, I discovered it’s the honey fermentation process that I particularly enjoy:

Honey process is a method in which coffee cherries are picked and sorted, have their skins and pulps removed like other types of coffee—but are then dried without washing off the sticky-sweet outer layer of the fruit. Since honey process beans spend less time in water than washed beans do, less fermentation occurs, so not as much of the sugar in the bean is converted to acid. (tasteofhome.com)

The method:

I’m a French Press kind of woman as of 7-8 years or so.

Currently, I have a 1 litre Bialetti and a 500ml Bodum. They were gifts from thoughtful friends ;)

Just as one of the same thoughtful friends taught me about the Hoffman method of brewing coffee in the press:

I’m quite happy with how easy it is to keep the french press clean, the coffee warm & the recipe’s tastes. Although most of the mornings I wing it, I confess :))

Yet, for the full experience with this tool, I highly recommend you actually take care of:

• the type of grind.

• the water temperature.

• the brewing time.

Conclusion?

Not much of a conclusion here. Just that the coffee that you learn to do for yourself beats everything else.

For me, it’s a morning ritual and a writing ritual. It’s how I start the creative process most of the time.

It’s also the motivation to walk a lot, wake up early, or “eat the frog”.

So if you’re enjoying coffee through different methods or you have some favourite beans that I *must* try, please reply!

As you can well see, my coffee curiosity (cough, addiction, cough cough) is never-ending.

I just barely try to keep it within reasonable limits.