Higher Grounds

Many months ago on this blog I confessed my love for good coffee. Alas, said coffee has proven hard to find in Boston. I was reminded of this in the morning at the one decent cafe near my office. I asked for a latte. They said their Espresso machine was broken. And in that instant I could see the rest of my day going down the tubes.

For a coffee-drinking nation the Americans sure do put up with vast amounts of horrendous coffee. And please don't use the S-word. I've not generally been a fan of Starbucks but I will concede that in most parts of the world they will give you a passable cup of the stuff. Not here, though. I've been unhappily amazed at the consistency with which their baristas manage to burn coffee just enough that it is still barely drinkable while tasting vaguely unpleasant. I think they train them for it.

(It does add to the Starbucks experience in Boston that the baristas are incapable of spelling perfectly ordinary names. I once tried giving them my initials and they even got that wrong. I have a colleague named John who is now reduced to calling himself Joe, just to make things easier for them. It's shameful.)

Most places are no better than Starbucks. Somehow Dunkin Donuts has acquired a reputation as the everyman's cofffee shop. It's not very well deserved. Except in the very literal sense that every man (and woman) seems to be in them. I have never seen such long lines for such an ordinary beverage.

I should be fair, and I should admit that several of the coffee shops, including Starbucks, offer very acceptable flavoured roasts. Hazelnut seems to be a particular favourite, and it does drip quite satisfyingly down the tongue. But a flavour like that is good only for an occasional distraction. It is not a substitute for the good, strong, straight coffee that I like to drink every 3 hours.

So after multiple cafe misadventures I decided to not rely on others to make my coffee for me. It was time to go the Do-It-Yourself way. And so I Did It Myself. I bought an elegant little French press. I went to the supermarket, bought some beans and ground them. And then I brewed my first pot of Javana Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica. The aroma was perfect. Unfortunately aroma was all that the coffee had. It had absolutely no taste at all. For several minutes I experienced extreme sensory dissonance, as my non-plussed tongue tried to work out what my nose was so ecstatic about.

Then I tried brewing a pot of Green Mountain Colombian. This time there was some flavour to the coffee. Which was a pity because I think it would have tasted much better if it had been tasteless.

By this time I was close to despair. I mean, coffee is one of the essential food groups, and I was on the verge of starvation.

And then I found it. The most amazing blend of Indonesian coffee. It's just the kind I like. It has a strong, bold aroma, a sharp almost tangy after-taste, but is not too acidic. It's amazingly drinkable. I know, because the day I brought it home I had 4 cups over breakfast. And the best part is the fragrance of ground coffee that lingers in the air for several seconds after I reseal the bag of grounds.

I am now sated. I have found a coffee that I really enjoy. In fact, I love it so much that I am not at all bothered by the irony of finally finding it in Starbucks. :-)