The Four Fundamentals

So I’m a single coffeeholic and I’m okay with that. I’ve yet to find someone who appreciates me for who I am – an addicted, eccentric, twenty-something New Yorker who won’t settle for a man the same way she won’t settle for her coffee. However during this rather long (almost lifetime long, really) bout of singledom, I’ve found a companion in my provider.

Starbucks has been good to me lately – and this newly featured Guatemala Casi Cielo is like the dark brooding man you try to force a moment with (read: stare at) on the subway but would never actually talk to. It’s described as “elegant and intriguing,” and is more approachable (however perhaps a little less formally attired) than the dark brooding man.

Starbucks has an uncanny ability of making their coffees sound just like the kinds of people you might be interested in going on a date with. I mean, who wouldn’t want elegant and intriguing? Or “intense and earthy” (Sumatra)? “light and lively” (house blend)? or even “mellow and well-rounded” (Yukon)?

And while I’d like to find myself a good Gold Coast blend (“rich and sophisticated”), you can never really be too sure what blend is best for you. People are as complex as the beans, and just as there are fundamentals to finding relationship happiness, there are guidelines for finding the perfect cup.

The four fundamentals of coffee are as follows: proportion, grind, water and freshness. Without these you find yourself not only not enjoying your coffee, but feeling let down, disappointed because you’ve unknowingly (or knowingly for reasons of availability, convenience, etc.) settled for “dull and bland.”

Ostensibly, the amount of time the coffee and water spend together affects the flavor elements that end up in your cup, and unless and until you find a blend that is at the right place at the right time, I’m afraid it just might not be in the cards. But filter machines brew for much longer and with more water, making a weaker (albeit good) coffee. It’s the kind of coffee that’s been in your pantry for months. Diluted you say, “it’s fine,” because you just don’t want to bother going out and getting something new. On the other hand, a French press, for example, where the water and grinds have had less time in overall direct contact, however the outcome is a lot stronger and more intense.

In the end, of course, it’s the blending that matters most. What is ultimately needed is the right combination of various qualities found in different regions to form one harmonious, balanced whole. No wonder I’m still single.

Whatever the case, each Starbucks blend offers a cup of coffee that no single-origin coffee can duplicate. Because really, who wants ordinary anyway? Why settle when there’s just so much out there to choose from? When you’ve yet to really find your perfect cut? OK, so maybe I’m getting a little carried away seeing as how a good coffee is a little easier to find in this city than a good man (sadly). And at, what is it now? Like $10 a cup? Some of you average-cuppa-Joe’s out there may think I’m out of my mind to be dedicating so much time to my morning, afternoon, and sometimes nightly indulgence in roasted beans.

I figure that while it may take more effort and time to reach such a seemingly perfect outcome in anything in life, to me, a coffeeholic of the second largest city in the world next to Tokyo (right?), it’s just like what The Way I See It #157 says: “Some of the best inventive moments were born out of ‘wrong thinking.’ Most people start with the right way so they all follow the same path. The wrong way will lead to mistakes from which you can learn and create new discoveries – the kind of original ideas that come to life when we dare to be different, keep an open mind and have no fear of failure.”
James Dyson said that. And all he did was design a better way to pick up dirt.