On coffee...

Coffee berries

Coffee is very much part of my daily ritual. I did give it up for a month this year just to see if I could - it wasn't that hard but I did feel I was missing a small bit of enjoyment from my day. I'm lucky to have access to free coffee every day I work and on my day off I'll make a plunger at home or head out to a cafe. 

Without fail my first coffee of the day will be a trim cappucino in a tulip cup with cinnamon, no sugar. I prefer to make it myself so it's exactly how I like it although there's a few of my colleagues who will make me a perfect one every time. The reason for the tulip cup is so that the coffee is nice and strong. I want to be able to taste it, not just taste milk.

My recent trip to the South Island proved just how wrong people can make a cappucino. If it comes in a takeaway cup I can tell straight away if it's more flat white than cappa by the weight. If I spot the barista spooning foam onto it I just about have a heart attack. I cringe now thinking about the coffees I sent out to customer when I first started waitressing at age 16. 

If I have a second coffee later in the day it'll be a long macciato or a long black with cold milk if I'm feeling lazy. 

On Tuesdays I have my once a week vienna. Last week my workmate whipped the cream with maple syrup instead of icing sugar and I have to say, it made the most divine vienna. 

Occasionally I'll have a hot chocolate instead - generally soy. I'm not sure why but soy hot chocolates just taste way better! 

I'm not sure if being particular about coffee is a Wellington thing or whether I'm just a plain snob...it really interests me that everybody has their own coffee preference. Particularly those with a preference for large trim decaf lattes...how about I just give you a cup of warm milk?! There's the snob rearing its head again. 

I visited a coffee plantation in Colombia which was really interesting. They took me right through the process from cultivating the plants, picking them, rinsing way the pulp, drying the beans, roasting them, grinding them and finally being able to make a cup of coffee. I drank seven espresso that afternoon and let me tell you the trip back up the windy, gravel road to the city, racing the rain in a region notorious for deadly landslides, was definitely memorable. It was definitely the most nauseous I've ever felt but it was worth it to try such tasty coffee right at the source. 

Unfortunately pretty much every other day in South America was so so disappointing coffee wise. So much so that I pretty much gave it up for a few months. They must export all the good stuff because it was mostly nestle from a tin or so poorly steamed it was either burnt or bubbly foam. Gross. 

Do you even drink coffee and if you do, do you take it a special way? Anyone else such a creature of habit as I am?