Dear reader, this is not a belated April Fool's post. There has been more than a few days this month I have imbibed more coffee than tea. Considering I've had less than a gallon of coffee my whole life before this month, I slowly see now that matcha was the gateway drug. I couldn't drink even a half cup of decaf coffee previously as the caffeine would be powerful enough for an involuntary all-nighter. But I have been slowly upping my daily matcha dosage for months until I was doing a four tablespoons a day without a buzz.
It's frightening how quickly a coffee habit can replace a decades long morning tea habit. Two weeks ago I started to take the second or third brew off my husband's morning coffee for a wee extra bit of caffeine and here I am. Part of me wants to nip it in the bud and return to tea A.S.A.P. I don't want to be one of those groggy grumpy morning monsters who cannot get started without coffee. But a part of me just wants to go the full length and go deeper with the bean.
As the quartermaster for all edible supplies, I been dutifully buying coffee beans for my husband pretty much randomly as my husband has a low threshold for satisfaction. Most coffee in the $8-$12 mid range tends to be pretty good as competition among the roasters are fierce. But in the last two months I started sampling the coffees to try to procure a better cup for my man. Training my palate little by little, I find Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with fruity floral high notes to be a pretty cup- very much like a Yiwu. But coffee is mostly a functional beverage for my husband and he wants a robust and flavorful cup.
If I want fruity floral high notes, I better stick to my oolongs.
It's frightening how quickly a coffee habit can replace a decades long morning tea habit. Two weeks ago I started to take the second or third brew off my husband's morning coffee for a wee extra bit of caffeine and here I am. Part of me wants to nip it in the bud and return to tea A.S.A.P. I don't want to be one of those groggy grumpy morning monsters who cannot get started without coffee. But a part of me just wants to go the full length and go deeper with the bean.
As the quartermaster for all edible supplies, I been dutifully buying coffee beans for my husband pretty much randomly as my husband has a low threshold for satisfaction. Most coffee in the $8-$12 mid range tends to be pretty good as competition among the roasters are fierce. But in the last two months I started sampling the coffees to try to procure a better cup for my man. Training my palate little by little, I find Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with fruity floral high notes to be a pretty cup- very much like a Yiwu. But coffee is mostly a functional beverage for my husband and he wants a robust and flavorful cup.
If I want fruity floral high notes, I better stick to my oolongs.
Ethiopian (Hararr, not Yrgacheffe) was my gateway into good coffee... a long time ago. Over time I acquired one of almost every kind of device that could be used to brew coffee and wound up mainlining espresso for many years. I've been making the reverse of your trek and haven't drunk coffee regularly for over a year.
ReplyDeleteYou should track down some southeast Asian coffees. There's a reason it's called 'java.'
Dear Aardvark,
DeleteI have sipped various aged Sumatras when my husband was into high end coffees ten years ago but since my coffee palate was wholly under developed, I could not really distinguish much. But now I can give them a whirl. But I have to admit that coffee for me always has that inescapable coffee flavor as a base so I'm not sure I can go that long with coffee if it weren't for the caffeine addiction. I'm a tourist ready to go home to tea.
H