Coffee Talk
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By Mabi Perez David
Let me forewarn readers who expect to find here a definitive article on coffee, coffee drinking and the pursuit of the perfect cup: I am not an authority, and neither is this piece authoritative. I am, in fact, one of those actual people who pick out the numerous, nicely designed coffee brochures found in cafŽs, giving the un-hip impression that I am there for research rather than conversation. After acquiring a fair lot, I put some of the details together so that others can avoid the plaguing stares of other cafŽ-goers in case you commit the social faux pas of poring through the brochures and indirectly admitting that you, dear Lord!, are no coffee connoisseur.
For a long time, I thought that coffee was coffee was coffee, and it was made from uncooked rice that was roasted on slow fire. As a child, my parents insisted that we always eat breakfast together, and part of the perk promised was having coffee with them. Of course, the cup which they gave to us was that of roasted rice steeped in hot water. It made us gullible children feel like adults as we drank the tasteless liquid.
Cappuccino gets its name from the "cap" of foam on top which resembles the hooded robe of the Capuchin friars. Proper cappuccino should contain approximately 1/3 espresso, 1/3 hot steamed milk, and 1/3 foamed milk.
For an even longer time, our mother told us that coffee was bad. She did not give details of the effects of coffee like the inability to fall asleep and heart palpitations which, come to think of it, are also two of the many symptoms of romantic love. Nonetheless, I, having grown up in a Catholic household and gone to a school which believed in prom nights without boys and hailed the value of blind obedience, thought that drinking the real thing was up there with coveting other men's wives with a mere glance. Of course, this made coffee all the more tempting.
Bitterness is not dominant in the bean but develops during the roasting process. The darker the roast, the more bitter the taste. The bitter sensation is more often associated with strength, leading to the mistake of confusing the strength of a coffee with the coffee bean rather than the darkness of the roast.
My friend Tara and I once had dinner in a restaurant which specialized in Catalan cuisine. As we ordered our coffee, we tried to figure out the difference between a "robust" cup of coffee and a "strong" one.
"I think," Tara began, then paused. I couldn't tell if she was trying to find the right words, which a dilettante could easily comprehend, or if she herself were trying to figure out the difference right there and then. "Robust has something to do with the feel of coffee inside one's mouth."
"This," I pointed to my cup, "feels really hot. So robust must be equal to hot in coffee-speak?" I asked.
"Gaga!" she said. "Robust as opposed towaterythinweak"
Body is the tactile impression of the weight of the brewed beverage in the mouth. It may range from watery and thin, through light, medium and full, to buttery or even syrupy in the case of some Indonesian varieties.
"Weak as opposed to strong, you mean?"
She paused. "Do you want to talk about something else?"
"Let's."
Espresso should be prepared and savored on the spot. The beans are ground and brewed immediately before serving, rewarding the drinker with a burst of flavor sensed throughout the mouth. This is not a cup to be lingered over, but rather provides one delicious mouthful to be savored momentarily while the fleeting flavor is at its peak!
Drinking coffee was never this difficult. In fact, it was never even this chic. Nobody hung out in cafŽs and contemplated the universe and one's existence. unless one was in CafŽ des Phares, one of the many philosophy cafŽs in France. (Back then, my office mates and I drank gallons of this caffeine beverage so that we wouldn't fall asleep as we worked late the night before to meet deadlines and then to keep us awake for the next day's presentation. We hailed coffee for its caffeine and argued against decaffeinated coffee. Sometimes I offered the lament of lactose-intolerant people who were addicted to coffee at the same time because caffeine inhibits calcium absorption, especially after a meal. That was the extent of our conversations about coffee.)
Espresso is a brewing method which uses pressure, not gravity, to brew (literally, it is "expressed" from the filter). It also refers to the concentrated, flavorful "essence" brewed from the beans. The amount of coffee used is roughly 2/3 the amount used for a single serving of drip coffee, but with far less waterAlways suspect a demitasse filled to the brim with so-called "espresso". Unless a "doppio" has been ordered, you probably may have been given a thin, bitter, over-extracted brew. Even a "doppio" should never contain more than 120 ml. of fluid.
So-called coffee specialty shops are sprouting all over the metropolis-from small, intimate ones to larger, more prestigious, "the-place-to-be-seen-in" types-and people seem to be drinking with a vengeance nearly every hour of the day. Breakfast is no longer the only time to have a cup of Java so that coffee is running a neck-to-neck battle with beer as the drink to have when one wishes to unwind.
Still, breakfast for me is the best time to have coffee. Working in Makati, I need to leave my Quezon City place early to beat the rush-hour traffic so I have my morning cup in different delis and cafŽs which open between 6 a.m. and 7a.m. There are days when my breakfast costs more than my lunch, but a good cup helps set the morning right.
At last, a morning ritual I simply adore! I think we all need to establish certain morning rituals which help set the day to a good start.
This week, because of the heavy rains, I decided to wake up earlier than usual. I take the 6:30 a.m. bus bound for Makati and get here at 7:40 a.m. Work starts at 9 so, rather than kill time at the office, I take my morning coffee and bagel at Starbucks. Since I have all my things with me, I have the option to reread a book (Anita Brookner's Look At Me) or to write down my thoughts (about that guy seated right across me, ha ha!) or to just be. Right there. It helps me become centered. Profoundly enough, even with a tall glass of their darkest roast, this ritual calms me.
The view is not spectacular. Glorietta is not exactly breathtaking, but there is something so serene about the sight of cars parked in their respective places. Bustling noise from outside has yet to reach peak level so that it fails to penetrate the cafŽs glass windows. The others who are taking their breakfasts with me speak in low tones like a mother affectionately murmuring to her child. Even the rain adds texture to the entire experience, and the long walk to the office, the slow gathering traffic, the grand fountain of The Peninsula, signal a day that is about to begin.
Coffee flavor and aroma may be classified according to geographic origin. Coffees get much of their flavor from the specific growing conditions and preparation methods of each producing region.
Jhoanna loves people-watching. We have frequented places near our offices which either have large windows, tables outside the restaurant or bar stools facing the traffic of people. I have never been big about watching people rushing and milling about all the time. I couldn't care less whom I might see. There have been times when I even hoped that I would not encounter a familiar face. So Jhoanna took the seat facing the crowd while I took the one where I could have my back to them.
"Isn't that the model?" She asked me.
I turned and made like I was looking at the park across the cafŽ, then quickly glanced at the man in denim shorts who was busy punching the buttons of his cellular phone. He was with three other women who were busy with their own mobile phones. I glanced back at Jhoanna and nodded. "Domini-"
"I don't see the point of getting together with your friends and then sending text messages to others. Look at them. They're not even talking to each other."
A group of teenagers in designer clothes walked in and made a beeline for the counter. Their eyes scanned the room to see if there were people they knew.
"I wonder where these kids get their money," I asked Jhoanna. "When I was their age, I would have to starve myself for weeks so that I might be able to afford one frigging cup of coffee. My mother would have insisted that I have rice coffee at home." I made a face as I remembered the taste.
"I like it here."
"Me, too. Everybody looks so happy." We exchanged glances, and I laughed. "I know I'd be happy if I were as rich as some of these people."
"What made us think that rich people aren't happy, anyway? It's one way of coping with poverty. 'Oh, we're poor but at least we're happy.'"
"Bill Gates is worth $3 trillion. I bet he's happy. I know I will be if I was worth that much. We think money cannot buy happiness, but what if there is actually a level of financial affluence where one can actually buy everything, including happiness? We don't know for sure because"
"We haven't reached that level." Jhoanna finished the thought for me.
"Exactly." I said, and we were quiet for a while, passing glances at the different booths where men and women, young and old alike, sat and drank their coffee. "Can you believe what we're saying?"
"No. It's probably the alcohol." She dismissed me and stared at the model who was staring intently at the screen of his cellular phone.
"Jhoanna, we're drinking coffee."
Boiling causes bitterness, so never boil coffee. Don't reheat coffee either-make it fresh each time you serve it. Use only freshly drawn cold tap water-water is 98 per cent of every cup. Ideally, water should be free from sediments, tastes and odors. The best way to brew coffee by the pot is by the coffee press method. Hot water is simply poured over a coarse ground coffee and allowed to steep for 2-4 minutes and then, plunge down the stainless steel mesh filter to the bottom to separate coffee from the grounds. The brew is rich and thick and more flavorful than drip coffee since paper filters remove flavor nuances and add a taste of their own.
Sources: "The World of Coffee", " The Best Coffee at Home" and "Espresso: What You Need To Know" from Starbucks Coffee
Mabi Perez David is studying for her masters in creative writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She was a fellow in the National Summer Writers Workshop in Dumaguete and the UP Writers Workshop in Baguio where she received the Likhaan Award for her poetry.
