Genesis

Whenever I start to geek out and talk to people about coffee, one of the first things they ask me is "how did you get into all of this?". Because I've been asked this so many times, I've had to do some thinking and get my story straight. Not so much the how but the why has a lot to do with my personality. I'm an all-in kind of dude. Whatever emotion is being elicited by my thoughts or the world around me, it's cranked up to 11. Whenever I'm interested in something, I immediately want to know everything about it. The second thing about me is that I hate regret. Suffice it to say most people don't really enjoy the feeling of regret, but in my case it sometimes causes me some paralysis when it comes to making decisions. This will come into play later. 

I first remember having coffee at the leasing office of an apartment complex my mother managed. She would open up the building, which basically looked like a living room, with a couple of offices tucked away where prospective tenants would apply, and a kitchenette. I had full run of the place while she conducted business, but not before she had made a full pot of coffee. I didn't think much of it at the time, I was in grade school and attributed the drink to other "adult stuff". Over time after being cooped up in the tiny leasing office and seeing my mom and her associates go for cup after cup of the mysterious black liquid, I became curious. My mom took hers with a liberal amount of cream and sugar, almost eclipsing the taste of coffee altogether. Unsupervised, I took her lead and dumped insane amounts of both until the coffee was practically a syrup. And that was my first experience with coffee. 

From that time until I joined the military service is kind of a blur. I would frequent Starbucks occasionally throughout high school, but didn't brew or drink coffee at home that much. Once I joined the service, I drank coffee more frequently, as I needed the caffeine boost for early reveille. My time in the service brought me to Ft. Lewis, WA where I encountered the coffee culture of the Pacific NorthWest. It was there, in the birthplace of Starbucks that I truly began to experience coffee. One study says that people in Seattle and the surrounding area consume more coffee than any other city. There are approximately 35 coffee shops per 100,0000 residents, and people spend an average of $36/mo on coffee, which in hindsight seems on the low side. The shops range from Starbucks style joints, to lounges, drive through kiosks, and even delivery services. The climate there is most likely a major contributing factor, where the winter is long, it's overcast, with a light drizzle most of the year. Perfect coffee weather. My wife and I found our favorite haunts, but would enjoy sampling some of the drive through places. 

Towards the end of my time in Washington our automatic drip coffee maker broke. For whatever reason we didn't think to get a new coffee maker until we arrived and settled in greater Washington D.C. Enter decision paralysis: I was faced with deciding what coffee maker to buy. I took to the internet to research them, a process that lasted two months. I ended up discovering that the most discerning of coffee drinkers manually poured water over grounds to make their coffee. People extolled the virtues of making your own coffee using an intense, somewhat laborious process. Being an "all-in" man, I was intrigued. I quickly found out that coffee was akin to wine. I had a vague idea of how complex vino could get, but I had no idea that the same applied to coffee. I learned of coffee's storied history, it's complex chemistry, and how it's the second most traded commodity in the world next to petroleum. 

The rest, as they say, is (recent) history.

I look forward to sharing with you my newfound passion. I now roast my own coffee at home, obsess over getting the perfect extraction into every cup, and visit every independent coffee shop/roastery I can find. I've all but abandoned my auto drip maker (I did end up buying one) and diligently hand pour steaming water over fresh grounds, daily. My coffee bar and all the gear on it is my muse. I am always looking for a curious ear to share my adventures with.