One Man's Notes

My dream chair. Oh, yes. People of the interwebs, please arrange for one of these to come into my possession.

Your co-operation is appreciated.  

Mmm. Coffee.

Almost exactly how I won't look sat in it.

[via Toxel.com]  

I've become a great fan of the process of starting with roasted coffee beans and ending up with a glorious cup of coffee, and I have at least three methods I regularly use to make brew up. Much as I enjoy the coffee itself, the ritual of making it is part of the jy. It takes me away from whatever I'm working on a gives me a break as I focus on the moment. In this fast-moving, hyper-connected, screen-based lifestyle, that's a valuable few minutes.

This video captures the ritual beautifully:

[vimeo www.vimeo.com/40980282 w=750&h=423]

I strongly recommend an AeroPress - they make great coffee. 

Thanks to a quick visit to Sutton town centre today, I had the rare chance to enjoy my favourite of the chain coffee sellers in the UK - Caffé Nero.

I find their Americanos a vast improvement on any of the others.

Your coffee sucks, apparently, and indeed, much of the coffee we consume does suck.

Some years ago, while I was working on a now-defunct magazine for the hotel and restaurant industry (called, prosaically, Hotel & Restaurant) I was treated to a presentation on how to prepare good coffee from a coffee distributor.

That meeting changed my attitude to coffee, which I'd only just started drinking in granule form. I quickly switched to "real" ground coffee, drunk quickly after grinding, and treated as a perishable foodstuff.

Now I have a hankering for more, better, newer coffee. There's some great starting points in the comments of that post.

Today, I forecast three cups of coffee, because I'm a little tired.