A beginner's journey into coffee -

It all started down a rabbit hole of coffee videos: fancy coffee machines, even fancier latte art. No, I didn’t go searching out these videos on a whim. A friend had already gone down the rabbit hole and decided to take me with him. Suddenly, all my social media videos were coffee. I had no idea that coffee could even go this far. Sure, I drank the stuff on and off, even occasionally treated myself to whatever sounded nice on the coffee shop board. “Maybe a cortado, please,” I asked, with no knowledge of what that was. Though usually I’d settle quite happily for a latte. But now I began to see where I once was blind. I started watching baristas make my coffee, especially when they did the milk steaming bit. This wasn’t always fun; I often felt like I was invading their space by watching, even though I was genuinely curious. “That’s exactly the sound you want to hear,” I proudly announced to my wife stood beside me, not knowing at the time that the drink would taste like over-boiled water with a layer of bath foam on top. Well, we all have to start somewhere. After a few months of barista-watching and obsessing over ‘what makes good coffee’, I made the commitment — I bought a Sage Bambino espresso machine.

Things cooled down afterwards. My obsession was satiated with this lump of golden-liquid-producing metal on my kitchen counter. For about 8 months I just made coffee. I wasn’t that good at it, and I wasn’t that fussed about getting better, either. Life takes its turns, and I diverted from obsession to mundane preoccupation.

The end? Not quite. The prolonged intermission in my coffee obsession turned to curtains-up and a resumption of the show, thanks to my brother-in-law. He’d managed to get hold of some coffee beans and wanted to ship them over from Indonesia. If anything would get me back into coffee — really back into it — then this was it. But I was completely in the dark. Once again, I realised how little I knew about coffee.

Now, rather than scrolling through bemusing latte art videos, I lunged into the world of coffee bean roasting. I had learnt that beans can be unroasted (green) or roasted and ready for grinding and use. How are these “green” beans roasted, then? I still don’t know, but I really would like to. Something to do with a “first crack”, which sounds slightly ominous, but I think has to do with the bean opening up in some way.

So, how’s the coffee import business going, I hear you ask? Well, it’s going. Slowly, I might admit. But, all hope is not lost. I made my first not-just-acceptable-but-actually-quite-good latte art this morning.

Check it out!