There’s one important reason why it’s better to drink coffee at home. It isn’t the fact that no one can make coffee better than you. (That isn’t likely.) The truth is, to fully appreciate something, one needs to be intimately involved in its conception. Thus, if I want to truly enjoy my coffee, I need to make that coffee myself. One of the most enjoyable aspects of one’s coffee moment is brewing the coffee. Throughout the process, you’ll smell a variety of aromas, and come to know your coffee beans. You’ll see the colours of freshly made coffee and the colours of coffee grinds that have just made contact with hot water. You’ll really be part of the process and able to choose what kind of flavours go into the coffee that you yield. Moreover, you can choose how to serve the coffee and what kind of cup or mug it’s held in. At home, the possibilities are endless when it comes to setting up and selecting your place to drink as well. These opportunities simply aren’t feasible, stuck in a public place.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe that many baristas make good coffee, but even so, the cup that’s handed to me will always be missing some of the passion that my own creation contains. More often than not, baristas don’t have any motivation to go above and beyond for you. Minor differences notwithstanding, you’ll receive the same cup of coffee as the hundred patrons that came before you—as well as the hundred to come.
I also understand that many establishments have expensive tools to help their baristas and brewers craft balanced beverages. Nonetheless, the passion is lacking, and one’s own input cannot be replaced with even the very fanciest tackle. It’s fine to go out—to meet with friends, to see new places, to smell new smells—but know that a coffee-focused moment is never more potent than right at home.
A cup is a vessel dedicated to carry our coffee to great places, so don’t underestimate it! Consider, for instance, the strong parallels this container shares with our clothing. Employing various combinations of apparel, we can flaunt certain parts of our body, soul, and creative spirit. The same is true when showcasing coffee. Imagine the coffee as a body with its own personality (flavours), build (consistency), charm, taste, and aroma. From all of these traits, we’re prone to pick the prettiest components to present to the world around us.
If we put as much thought in the cup that holds our coffee as we put in the clothes we wrap around our bodies, we open ourselves up to entirely new stimulating encounters. Different cups, with their unique structures, materials, and colours, completely change the way we experience a beverage. We’re able to wholly alter our senses—and that’s always worth the time involved. One might add sugar. One might add milk.
Just like coffee itself, our cups work their way into our routines and our memories. Collectively, these little vignettes add to the story of our lives. Cozy coffee moments are . . . everything.
In my home, I have some beautifully designed cups. I’ve used them on occasion, but there are two plain cups that I’m always drawn back to. I use them much more than the others because they are filled with history: They’ve long been part of my journey. Creating happy memories is half of the equation.
What I mean to say is this: you needn’t focus on the fanciest, most expensive, or well-designed cup for your coffee moment. They may excite you for a while—but they will not hold your attention. What you really crave for, is a cup with sentimental value—something connected to warm recollections. Maybe a cup that belonged to your grandparents or one that hails back to nascent love. Maybe it’s even a treasured piece that you found on the other side of the planet. Vessels like these are truly bound to carry you away!
Step number one is to gauge the first feeling you experience. Based on this, we begin to judge the coffee before us. It’s like first meeting someone. Based upon our initial reaction, we’ll quickly regard the coffee positively or negatively. Our feelings could be influenced by the package, smell, the person who described and sold the beans, or any number of other factors. Don’t judge the coffee after the first sip, however. Many great tastes are acquired. And certainly don’t judge a coffee by its package. Would you make up your mind about others based on what kind of clothes they’re wearing?
Next, come the emotions created during drinking. We can be amazed, love a coffee, and feel excited to try it again . . . or we can be disappointed, angry, and fed up.
Finally, we’re left with the feeling of the whole coffee experience, including the preparation, first sip, packaging, aroma, and final sip.
Below, we’ll explore the different situations in which coffee converges with our emotional state:
Selecting Coffee
This is a big moment, in itself, when you select coffee beans for enjoyment at home, based on your favourite roaster, country, or even packaging design. If you decide rationally, you may choose coffee from a location well known for its coffee beans. A more emotional decision would be selecting your brand because you have a particular affinity for the location. Perhaps you honeymooned there!
Emotive selection can also be when you select coffee beans based on sympathy for the roaster(s) after reviewing the farm description.
Neither approach could be seen is wrong, but know what you care about!
Selecting a coffee depand of design of coffee beans bag
Coffee Flavors
With an emotional sense of flavours come better-connected preferences and expectations.
Many people will go for a coffee of African origin due to how well the region is known for its beans. They expect a fruitier, sweeter cup of coffee, but this isn’t always what they’ll get. Instead, one should check the flavour description on the bag and learn about the roastery’s coffee cupping, the farm’s attitude, and the company’s general process. If we program ourselves emotionally, we run the risk of missing pivotal facts.
Roasting Level
Positive, higher energy is often connected with a supremely dark, burnt, bitter taste in coffee. It might have a connection with a strong, robust body. This means that if you drink coffee for energy—to wake up—you’ll go for a more bitter taste. But logically, the lighter-roast coffees with less intense, more acidic flavours will support you with more caffeine than the darker ones. If you like to relax and drink coffee for a variety of flavours, you should go for a lighter roast and coffee that’s connected with acidity and sweetness. Ideally, a good balance will be struck.
In Coffee Shop
One of the strongest emotional tricks is “latte art.” If you create something like a flower or heart, it will catch many people’s attention. Many customers won’t even focus on the taste of the coffee, enthralled as they are by the aesthetic.
Another good example is the new specialty café, where everything is nice, very light, perfectly designed, and replete with suave patrons. Such an establishment may serve much better coffee than some small coffee stall that’s never considered its appearance.
Other strong influencers of your emotion can be background music and the smell of the environment—ideally something like coffee! Other factors may include furniture, decorations, and overall balance of the settings. Everyone has their own haunt, and if you run a coffee shop, it’s good to change things up from time to time. Your customers will be pleased.
The smell of ground coffee can emotionally affect people and push them to say, “I need a coffee right now!”
Furthermore, the power of imagery can’t be underestimated. Besides being pretty, pictures of beans and people drinking coffee wield a potent psychological effect.
These are all elements of emotional marketing. Recognizing this will help you to make better decisions and avoid disappointment.
Coffee at Home
At home, things are easy: you have a lot of space to play and use your creativity. Some people even create a coffee corner, where they can make and savour their latest concoctions. You can even roll out a coffee ritual, using some of your favourite things—sculptures, flowers, pictures, and other items that have emotional value.
Flavors alone are only remembered for a short time. But once they’re connected with some other sensory or emotional response—some moment, person, place, or experience—we can remember the “coffee moment or experience” for a long time. Emotions give even more weight to the coffee experience. Whatever feelings we have while drinking will have an impact on the respective memories. Moreover, the emotion(s) may have a strong connection to mindfulness—sometimes for bad but often for good! A great cup of coffee should evoke emotions, just like a piece of artwork.
Based on medical terminology, emotions are associated with the nervous system. Once they’re activated by a situation, they bring about changes in our thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and sense of pleasure or displeasure.
Emotions often manifest themselves in non-rational actions, and it can be said that emotions are a physical response to our feelings. It’s just as the tastes we experience in our mouth have a corresponding physical aspect: what’s known as “the mouthfeel.”
Function of emotions
The main function of emotions is to prepare a person for a reaction. Some can have a physical effect that isn’t pleasant—nervousness, distractedness, heat pressure, fast movement, shaking, and so on. Other times, pleasant effects are produced. These may include euphoria, the urge to sing and dance, and hot or cold feelings. It’s all about personality, and everyone reacts differently to the pressure of emotions.
This is what makes our life interesting. Life, in my opinion, shouldn’t run in one perfect line; it ought to have some curves. Sometimes, emotions can surprise us. They can put us in uncomfortable situations. They’re not always “fun,” but in the end, having crossed the finish line, we generally only remember the good times that we had.
Emotions are the spice of life and make us who we are.
Coffee moments make our life more mindful, allowing us to stop and appreciate what we have—more than a tasty beverage.
Don’t underestimate the impact of emotions during coffee moments.
Keep in mind that they’re an important part of the experience. If you’re able to talk about your feelings, you might be able to control your reactions more easily than those around you. Once you have the power to read your own emotions, you’ll be better equipped to read situations and the mental state of others, making you more empathetic. After all, far more can be communicated through emotions than words.
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This is a very common saying. In fact, I’ve used it myself on numerous occasions. But that was before I’d come to appreciate the Asian view on coffee culture—one that is far more liberal. In the East, people take a less pretentious approach than their western counterparts, and judgement is splendidly lacking.
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Does bad coffee truly exist? Today, I no longer think so. Just as the human population can’t be neatly divided into righteous and wicked subgroups, all coffee is unique, and there doesn’t exist a brew that’s devoid of some merit. In my opinion, life is dazzlingly colorful. There’s no place for black and (creamy) white assessments.
Perhaps your personal preference is for sweeter, fruitier coffee, but that doesn’t mean that bitter coffee is bad. If you decide to patronize an establishment that serves a more burnt brew, it was your decision to go there, and you needn’t remark on their so-called inferiority. Simply look for the positives. (After all, there’s certainly a time and place for rocket fuel!) The same applies when someone makes you a coffee. To criticize their brewing skills would be ludicrous. And besides, just because it’s not your cup of joe, that doesn’t mean that I (or another) wouldn’t love it. Beauty is in the taste bud of the sampler, so let’s stay mellow!
If I don’t like a particular coffee, I will never again use the word “bad.” Diplomacy and specificity are key. There’s nothing wrong with stating one’s fondness for something or lack thereof, but why not go into detail in a constructive manner? (“I prefer a sweeter, stronger-bodied beverage.”) If a person isn’t too proud, I’ll even offer advice on occasion. The point is: you’re not God, so don’t judge!
I strive to offer coffee with an unparalleled variety of flavours. If you focus closely on your coffee drink, you’ll appreciate countless fruits, herbs, and tea flavours. This may include bitter, spicy, acidic and/or spicy components. Properly brewed filter coffee offers a perfect balance of flavours combined with an amazing aroma, texture, and mouthfeel.
Coffee is not just a drink. It’s a wonderful sensational experience! To fully appreciate the aromas and flavors of our coffee drinks, we should make it a habit to cleanse our mouths properly before taking the first sip. What’s the best way to cleanse our palates? There are many different ways. It all depends on us and our preferences.
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My first
memorable experience with coffee was smelling the drink while I was in the
kitchen with my mother. She’d put on a pot for herself or friends, and soon our
house would be a cafe. The aroma still returns me to those soothing days of
youth.
Later
on, when I was a teenager, a friend inspired me to discover the magic of coffee
more intimately. I tried chewing the beans, and their flavour was new to
me—bitter but simply delectable.
Coffee bean, on back is bowl with coffee beans
As an adult, I began to drink instant coffee and espresso regularly. Though I did appreciate both, nothing could match my love for filter coffee.
Quality filter
coffee offers an unparalleled variety of flavours. If you focus closely on your coffee drink, you’ll
appreciate tones of countless fruits, herbs, and tea flavours. Some components
are bitter or spicy, others acidic or spicy. Properly brewed, filter coffee
offers a perfect balance of flavours combined with an amazing aroma, texture, and
mouthfeel.
Filter
coffee may also be called coffee tea. Why? The method of filter coffee preparation
is very similar to preparing tea—especially if you prepare coffee via a cotton
filter or French press.
Drom of coffee from cottom filter
This may
spark your imagination: filter coffee can also be compared to alcoholic drinks.
Pour-over coffee is much like wine. Both drinks are derived from a fruit and bring
about similar effects. They put us in a comfortable mood and help to reduce stress.
Both display a wide range of flavours, intense aromas, and varying textures.
Think about that when having a cup!
Sticking with this analogy, it might be noted that espresso drinks are more like brandy or cognac—caffeinated fruit-shots. Then, you have many variations of the cocktail: mixes with milk, flavoured syrups, sugars and even spices. What they create tastes little like coffee, which brings me to . . .
The Answer
So, why
do I favour filter coffee? Why do I love it so much? Because I like to enjoy
the true flavour (including the aftertaste) of coffee. Likewise, I want the
aroma and body—the mouthfeel. I want it all.
Espresso
has a short, wild life. I prefer to enjoy my coffee slowly . . . using all of my
senses.
“Our senses are like a gateway into the world,” says Whitman.
“And as we open that gateway through developing our sensory awareness, the world blossoms into a symphony of colors, scents, tastes, sounds, and touch.” – Kenton Whitman, naturalist, writer & educator
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Mindset is your rudder in the boat of your life. –
Shan White, Life Coach
Let’s be the best version of ourselves, every day!
Let’s practise mindset work with specialty coffee!
We
strongly believe that being the best version of ourselves starts with a
positive growth-mindset. Coffee Nomads never settle!
Our mindset determines
how we think about life, the world and how we deal with challenges. Often times
we will not be able to change the situation. However, it’s up to us how we
think about life challenges and how we respond to it.
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How people drink and enjoy coffee around the word differs greatly. I find it fascinating to explore various unique coffee drinking rituals.
For example, in Ethiopia – the birthplace of coffee – it is
a long spiritual, sacred ceremony, which also includes the roasting of the
beans.
My coffee ritualCeramic coffee cup
“Italians usually drink a cup of espresso that is served
with a glass of water that is used for refreshing the mouth before drinking the
coffee.”
coffee cup
In Turkey, the brew usually served from a long-handled
copper pot called a cezve. According to
a famous Turkish proverb: coffee should
be ‘as black as hell, as strong as death
and as sweet as love.’
However, for all coffee lovers around the world, drinking
coffee is a mindful ritual that incorporates all five senses — sight, sound,
smell, taste and touch. It’s about slowing down and living in the moment.
‘…you hear the grinding, hear the water drizzling, smell
the aroma, see the color and depth, taste the several stages of flavor as the
liquid hits all parts of the mouth, and finally experience the trail down the
throat and aftertaste.’ Merry White, Coffee Life in Japan
Coffee cup
What makes a cup of coffee enjoyable for you? There are many
factors such as the taste, the origin of the beans, the flavours, and aromas.
An important factor is also the place, where we are drinking the coffee. From
my own experiences, I can tell that a comfortable and inspiring place can add
nearly 50% pleasure and joy.
coffee cup
Many people think that they can enjoy coffee to the fullest
in a coffee-shop. But why don’t we create our own cozy
coffee-drinking-atmosphere, no matter where we are at the moment. We do not
need a good-looking, hipster, industrial-style, cozy, fancy cafe to enjoy
coffee. We can create a wonderful atmosphere for ourselves at home, at work or
while going on a hiking trip.
Fancy coffee cup
I created my own coffee-spots in various places around the
world and during the last a couple months in Ireland. No matter where we are, a
cup of coffee can be amazing ‘food for our soul’ :-).
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Mindful Living with Coffee
