So I love coffee.
Alright that isn't exactly true. When I was younger I couldn't stand it, or anything hot to drink for that matter, if it wasn't cold I didn't want to drink it. I only started drinking coffee when I went to university, and only because it was the cheapest thing to drink and I knew I could make it last.
It was during that time I found some coffee I liked, a lot.
It's amazing how diverse the taste of coffee is considering how little diversity there is genetically with the plants; a lot of today's coffee plants coming from a single plant. But diverse it is, with various levels of robustness, acidity, bitterness, aftertaste it is quite wonderful. Or should I say, it can be...
It can also be vile, insipid, nauseating stuff.
For myself, I enjoy the rich kinds of coffee an example of which would be the Ethopian Harrar. But my favourite would have to be Sumatran. The best cup of coffee I ever had must have been a Sumatran Mandheling when it was just perfect. Unfortunately Sumatran coffee, from what I have experienced and been led to understand, is rather erratic in quality.
Which leads me to my next problem, what do you do when you live somewhere and the coffee is lousy? Switch to espresso and allonge? Quit coffee drinking? Special order in the good stuff? Grow your own and hope you don't get busted by someone mistaking your plants for a different variety of foliage?
All of which to say, I'm drinking strong coffee... not good, but not weak or the kind that makes you want to gag. And I'm drinking it black and strong, a sort of two part homage to the old Turkish saying that, "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love."
Cheers.
Posted by hugin at April 9, 2002 11:42 AM