I’m sitting in the middle of a pandemic, and I’ve been sequestered to indulge in the coffee of home. My mom, sister, aunt, grandma all drink lattes with our espresso-making, milk-frothing setup we have going on, and I’ve started to gain an appetite for coffee recently (no matter how many years I’ve spent resisting any addiction). In my 21 years, I can finally say I enjoy the beverage, although I am cautious of becoming dependent on it. A few days ago, I decided to treat myself to an afternoon coffee, so after a touch of a button and the high-pitched whirring of our Jura, came the dribble of a half-portion of black that stained my white, flowery ceramic cup.
Diving in nose first, I woke the afternoon with the waft of coffee as bitter as cigarette ashes. The aroma of burnt tobacco caught me off guard, but my tongue was less sensitive to its bitter tones. The smell? Bad. But, surprisingly, it was a nice coffee that wasn’t as sharply acidic and acridly bright to the back of my throat as other coffees have tormented.
Being locked up in my house, I don’t have as many options to explore coffees as I’ve had the chance to do before, but then again, I also didn’t have the privilege to have such easy and affordable access to have coffee as often as I can have now. It’s nice to have one more to the list: a new afternoon treat that I hadn’t realized before. Thanks coronavirus, I guess.
Update 4/10: I found out from Bon Appetit that if your water is too hot, it can burn the beans. Maybe that’s why our coffee has that burnt smell?
Did You Eat Rice? 