AY: Coffee Fix
Here I am sitting alone in the back room of a coffee shop of which I will not name by name. I am sipping an insipid double cupped 12 oz Americano out of a green paper vessel thinking to myself, what makes a good cup of coffee? I am stuck here because my coffee shop of choice (Black Water) has been shut down for a week while they moved to a new location, which I hear is going to be great! Alas, I needed to get my fix somehow. So, here I sit, full of embitterment, and with an even more bitter taste in my mouth. I was supposed to be working. At least that is what I told myself when I left the office for a “quick” coffee break that ended up being an hour of pondering. I couldn’t help but sit and continue to think about the aforementioned question. What is it that truly makes a good cup of coffee?
I wondered if it had to do with where the beans come from. About 4 years ago, I lived in Guatemala for a year and would often help pick beans from coffee trees alongside the farmers. I never knew that it took a full day for a family to pick 100 lbs worth of beans and that they would only get was $10. That was even above the fair trade price. I learned the process for washing the beans and removing the fruit from around the bean, the roasting process. From that day forward I always wanted to know who it was that roasted the beans, where those beans were from and if the farmer had been paid a fair wage for the tedious work that is coffee farming. This experience truly helped me realize it is good to know where my coffee comes from and the importance of direct, or at least fair trade. But is that all that goes into a good cup of coffee?
Coffee Roasting House, San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala:
Mayan man carrying 100 lbs of fresh picked coffee beans, San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala:
Fresh coffee beans being sent to be processed, San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala:
Photos © Adam Ydstie
After drifting off and waxing nostalgic about my time in Guatemala my thoughts meandered towards thinking more simply. Perhaps my lackluster Americano had do with the machine the cafe used. Or, maybe it was just that the employee was a trainee, unaware of the art of coffee making, floating through life dishing out fake macchiatos to over-caffeinated people for the sake of paying their way through college.
Whatever the case may be, I am beginning to think that a good cup of coffee has nothing to do with these things. While each element is important to the coffee connoisseur or even a run of the mill coffee snob like me, perhaps these factors don’t entirely make a good cup of coffee. Perhaps it is the person behind the counter, or the people I am sharing a cup of coffee with, or the way it is presented. I looked at my little green cup and realized that they didn’t even ask me if I wanted it “for here” or “to go”. Sad to think that a tree had to suffer for the lack of hospitality. Maybe the reason this cup of coffee was insipid to me was that I was sitting alone in a large back room without a community of familiar faces or new people to meet. Perhaps I didn’t need a coffee fix at all, but rather a community fix. Maybe a good cup of coffee is only as good as the people you share it with. I take my hat off to the Black Water community for their good company and look forward to a good 12 oz Americano when the new doors open. Please, may it be sooner than later.
Filed under: Adam-Ydstie, General
11 comments
E Erik B. March 6, 2009
Here I am sitting alone in the back room of a coffee shop of which I will not name by name
You write as if you are sitting at Starbucks.
M Mofo from the Hood March 6, 2009
I like Albertsons Naturally Decaffeinated Classic Roast Ground Coffee.
It comes in a GREEN can from right here in Tacoma.
Medium roasted and oh so mellow.
I I'm for Change (for tacoma) March 6, 2009
I think the point of your post Adam is the company I keep (at coffee time)makes the coffee, but I gotta tell ya…. I’d kill for a great cappuccino and then later (after 1130) a real macchiato. With either of those, I don’t need other people.
I have been seen in a Starbucks (too many times, there’s one in my building) – I admit it. I have no idea what is up with an extra caramel, caramel macchiato?!
T Thorax O'Tool March 6, 2009
As one who has never acquired the taste for coffee and really doesn’t see the big deal, I have nothing to add to this conversation, except for representing those who also do not like coffee.
R RR Anderson March 6, 2009
go CHAI!
W WesS March 6, 2009
What makes a good cup of coffee? No flavorings. No milk. No added water. In fact, less water. The magic word is ristretto. They know it at Blackwater & Satellite. I don’t think they know it at the places with green cups.
T Thorax O'Tool March 6, 2009
I will say that Satellite does make a better hot chocolate than Blackwater.
Not that it bears much on coffee or anything.
J Jim C March 7, 2009
Satellite gets fresh deliveries of Stumptown direct-trade beans every week, and with every pound of coffee Stumptown roasts they include a little printed card that describes the family that grew and dried the coffee and the bean varietal in the bag. A lot of their coffees come from Central & South America and have brightly alkaline flavor notes (as opposed to the acidic “bite” of a burnt French roast bean) since they are more lightly roasted than an arabica. I’ve had Stumptown coffees that taste like strawberry, black tea & chocolate – and these are real flavors, not like a wine where you have to know how to “find” the comparison. I highly recommend trying a cup of the french press the next time you’re in, and read some of the little cards on the bags for sale on the back wall.
A altered Chords March 9, 2009
I fell in love with “pumpkin spice” at Albertsons only to have it yanked from the shelves after the Holiday season.
I’ve brewed plenty of beer. I make my own pizza. So now when I buy coffee at Safeway I mix 50% French Vanilla and 50% Black Onyx beans. Grind on the “espresso” setting.
In the morning, I stumble to the espresso maching in my kitchen, fill the metal thing 3/4 w/ this magic blend then shake on a ton a cinamon and a 1/2 ton of nutmeg.
It is an altered chords cup of heaven. It’s so good I make 2 of these every day. Yea, it makes me 7 minutes late for work every day but at least I’m awake.
I’ll see if I can get an image of this and post it here.
T Thorax O'Tool March 10, 2009
Altered-Chordsachino?
H Holly Weiman March 10, 2009
It is funny looking back, no one used to meet in coffee shops. I never would have thought I would spend as much money on it as I do, yet nothing beats a cup of coffee and a good conversation. Black Water is 5% coffee (even though they have good coffee) and 95% the relationships and connections that are created there. We are lucky to have such a place!