Tuesday, September 05, 2006

I'm not a coffee-snob, I just care how it tastes! (Rant alert!)


For a while now I've been gradually getting more and more into the world of coffee. I've explored the different aspects of this wonderful beverage. From the plant to the cup a myriad of aspects influence on what the final product tastes like, and this interests me. I still only scraped the surface of the subject but seen enough to want to keep scraping. I don't expect everyone else to be as interested in all these aspects as I am, but expect people to care to at least a certain degree how it tastes. Sadly this doesn't always seem to be the case.

What is my main concern is that my interest in coffee actually has turned into a problem in some social contexts. As a wine-connoisseur people tend to see you as a resource and a person passionate about taste and the art of living. They ask for advice about wines and food and enjoy the lectures that ensue. However a coffee-lover is a hard-to-please problematic guest. "I guess this coffee isn't good enough for YOU." - said in a way you say to a little boy that doesn't want to eat the same food as everyone else. Not because the food is bad, but just because he's difficult and picky and doesn't want to try new things.

I must hurry to point out that I always drink whatever coffee I get served as a guest, and never complain even though it is luke warm and looks more like green tea than coffee. I don't look down on the people less into the world of coffee than me. I never lecture them on how they really should be making their coffee. Still this akward situation all to often arises. If you enjoy good wine you're a wine-connoisseur but if you enjoy good coffee you're a coffee-geek.

Some times I daydream that I never got interested in the world of coffee and the pleasures of enjoying a freshly brewed cup of newly ground, freshly roasted coffee. In these dreams I can be one of the people who can enjoy a luke warm cup of instant coffee. They don't know what they're missing out on but doesn't seem to care. Ignorance is bliss! At this point I usually wake up with a scream and go to the kitchen and make myself a cappucino.

However lately more and more friends and colleagues ask me for help about coffee and the brewing of it. There is a rising degree of interest in the making of quality coffee. I hope this could lead to that being a coffee-lover no longer will be a social stigma but a sign of a person who appreciates what life has to offer. I hope...

"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment." ~ Librarian - Warhammer 40,000