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Mornings can be difficult to deal with. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Some people leap out of bed at ungodly hours like the aunty next door who likes bathing the mini jungle in her balcony before even the birds come to terms with the rising sun. Or that roommate who wakes up before her alarm has the opportunity of breaking into that depressing alarm tune. Or that fitness maniac we all know (and fear) who not only wakes up at the crack of dawn, but also exercise-shames us every single day. These, are thankfully the exceptions. The rest of the world runs on coffee.
When that sweet but bitter-tinged aroma hits you, notice how the world suddenly feels like a better place. Much like the soothing, earthy smell of that very first monsoon shower on a nearly baked ground, the nutty smell of coffee can be a celebration of the senses.
It is said that it was the wise goats who first discovered the Hulk-like qualities of coffee. That's right. Goats. Rumour has it that the goateed-gentry chewed upon these magical red coffee berries, and much to the delight of their Ethopian goatherds, gave coffee-flavoured milk that day.
Okay no. That didn't happen. But the shepherds indeed noticed that the usually intellectual goats were unusually naughty that day and decided to eat the cheery-looking berries themselves.
Coffee had begun its journey towards world domination.
No longer eaten in its original (and bland) bean state, the coffee bean is now quite a sophisticated animal. There are several ways a coffee bean is roasted, and as a java-lover one must know the difference between: light (pop), medium (pop and simmer), dark (pop, simmer and hiss), and darkest (pop, simmer, hiss and smoke).
You can have it with cream, with ice cream, with milk, without milk, with sugar, without sugar. And on a terrible day, you can have it black, with none of the above.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838), the French diplomat declared that the perfect cup of coffee tastes "black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love", and the man was spot on.
When that sweet but bitter-tinged aroma hits you, notice how the world suddenly feels like a better place. Much like the soothing, earthy smell of that very first monsoon shower on a nearly baked ground, the nutty smell of coffee can be a celebration of the senses.
It is said that it was the wise goats who first discovered the Hulk-like qualities of coffee. That's right. Goats. Rumour has it that the goateed-gentry chewed upon these magical red coffee berries, and much to the delight of their Ethopian goatherds, gave coffee-flavoured milk that day.
Okay no. That didn't happen. But the shepherds indeed noticed that the usually intellectual goats were unusually naughty that day and decided to eat the cheery-looking berries themselves.
Coffee had begun its journey towards world domination.
No longer eaten in its original (and bland) bean state, the coffee bean is now quite a sophisticated animal. There are several ways a coffee bean is roasted, and as a java-lover one must know the difference between: light (pop), medium (pop and simmer), dark (pop, simmer and hiss), and darkest (pop, simmer, hiss and smoke).
You can have it with cream, with ice cream, with milk, without milk, with sugar, without sugar. And on a terrible day, you can have it black, with none of the above.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838), the French diplomat declared that the perfect cup of coffee tastes "black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love", and the man was spot on.
