Friday, March 30, 2012

Coffee bliss

I heard that coffee picked up as a "cool" beverage after FRIENDS was first aired and Central Perk, the cuddly lil place was something everybody wanted to be a part of. The story of first sipping on coffee, for me, goes way back. I was 5 when I had my first cuppa and I have been hooked on to it ever since. Coffee is truly inspirational, coffee is cool, coffee is hot, coffee is intellectual and coffee is casual.

Why I am obsessed with coffee is because of the same thing, how such an inanimate object can assume such life like character. Many cups of chai has been sipped between friends and many cups of coffee have been sipped alone. I think Chai Vs Coffee, coffee wins (for me). If I had to put point against point Chai comes out to be that friendly beverage, coffee is very intimate. I dont know if people think that, but for me coffee is like that friend. important yet unnoticed.

I love coffee for a bunch of reasons, mostly because tea is sweet (eeeugh) too sweet sometimes.

There is a personal connection to coffee, it is rebellious in nature. Coffee keeps you awake. Falling asleep when you don't want to, can at times be very very irritating. Coffee makes me feel like Im in control, Im probably overstating it, but I feel like that.

Every morning when i sit with my cup, something inside me wakes up... the smell of coffee is an experience. I am not talking expensive, tastes like crap coffee.. I am talking of home made filter coffee (not decaff). The smell of coffee is so tantalizing, so refreshing and brilliant :)

Like I said, coffee is very life like, it takes on the roles of the consoler...  I have a bad day I cuddle up with a hot cup of coffee and till the coffee is cold and i have sipped the very last drop I am a new person. Some of that warmth just spreads inside me and I feel better.

I love how a cup of coffee can let me get me to write, how coffee makes for an excellent companion to read. How coffee shops are ideal locations to spot the crazy book lovers, the workoholics and the fun ones. Something about coffee brings people together, like a union of sorts.

Coffee is eccentric, lots of character... may be because of the caffeine high or may be because of the stereotypical idea associated with coffee drinkers as crazy and eccentric, coffee has character.

A cup of coffee is debated, health-wise or otherwise people look at that black liquid in my cup and give me the 'look', almost judgingly, sometimes approvingly. It makes me wonder what about my cup is so bad, then it comes back to me- "coffee is bad for health" :) its been a good 18 years and not one day have i regretted my vice.  Its an addiction, its almost an obsession and integral part of who I am. Identity if you will.

I have forged bonds over coffee, rather the subject of it with fun people! My best friends are people who I spoke to over bitter coffee (they hated it). I lived a few minutes away from a small hotel that sold the best coffee, "Mysore filter" and funnily i was friends with the waiter who made my coffee. The moment I entered the hotel each morning, this sweet man would walk to the filter, laugh at the quantity of coffee he poured and almost everyday told the other waiters how I took my coffee, almost like a ritual.

These stories with coffee and the people attached to my ritualistic retreat I call a  coffee break make it an important part of who I am. when i tell people I worked for the Express, the first question I got shot at from a friend was -how was the coffee there? To tell you the truth, coffee for 5 bucks made life at IE so much nicer.

Coffee is what you feel about it, it assumes the character of a person, a friend a confidant, something that helps you think, something that with every sip reminds you of its presence, you enjoy the bitterness and the last few grains of sugar and just like in life you enjoy it to the last sip!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Love it or hate it, please go ahead and say it!