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I didn’t know 2)Starbucks sold coffee,” I murmur, appearing slightly 3)intrigued.
“But—um ... I mean, you really don’t know
Starbucks is a coffee shop?”
“It’s not, that I’m aware of.” I generally don’t 4)tip my hand so quickly, but she looks like an 5)easy mark.
“Well I like it.”
“Of course you do! I used to like it, too.”
My path to coffee snobbery was innocent. It always is. There’s not a one of us who decided to become a coffee snob. Not like wine snobs. Wine snobs become wine snobs because it’s 6)hip and cool. Anyone who decides to become a coffee snob becomes a Starbucks Fanboy, because Starbucks Fandom is hip and cool.
The only coffee-drinker in my immediate family, I developed the taste as a teenager, drinking the 7)swill (I didn’t know it was swill! Honest!) served at parties, church functions, and 8)doughnut shops. We never had coffee around the house except when out-of-town company necessitated it, and then it was the 9)ubiquitous Nescafe.
I drank that, too. I loved it. Eventually, I got to drinking it black. Swill. Black. I know. I’m sorry. I know better now.
In college, I drank cafeteria coffee. I drank coffee on airplanes, coffee at receptions, coffee everywhere brown water went by that name. For one Valentine’s Day, my then-girlfriend gave me a French press.
Now, she was—and to my knowledge, still is—a Starbucks Fan. At the time, though, she was the one to teach me the difference between swill and “good coffee”. I became obsessed, and started making cheap pre-ground coffee in the press.
Epiphany the First: Automatic drip coffee-makers have poor temperature control; they scorch, overextract and underextract every cup of coffee, yielding a burnt cup that’s 10)paradoxically both bitter and sour.
So now I couldn’t drink the stuff I’d been served for most of my coffee-drinking years. I knew coffee could be better. 11)The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ruined things by demonstrating distinction; the French press did the same thing. Once you know the difference, there is no return to blissful ignorance. And is being able to enjoy the most easily-available type of coffee such a bad thing? Then she gave me a grinder.
Epiphany the Second: Grinding coffee immediately before brewing is the single biggest improvement you can make to your coffee. Granted, I was using roasted-who-knows-when beans from the supermarket mystery-bins labeled exotic wonderful things like “Columbian Dark Roast” and “12)Sumatra 13)Mandheling”.
Looking back, I’m astonished I could taste the varietal difference in those beans, but my first cup of a Mandheling was at this point: I still remember my gleeful astonishment. “It tastes sweet and a little creamy all on its own! Black!”
For several years, I was considered a coffee snob, though not really earning the title. I’d politely refuse coffee whenever it was offered, because I knew my poor odds of enjoying the cup. When I could, I’d go to some of the nicer local coffee-houses and enjoy a cappuccino. Then I discovered it was possible to procure, at retail, green, unroasted coffee.
Epiphany the Third: Coffee that is not fresh is hardly coffee at all.
What can I say? I’m still beginning this journey. It started with my wanting an espresso machine. I thought I could pick up a little mini-14)Krups at the thrift store and be done with it. My research saved me—or doomed me. I discovered that to make anything worth drinking, one had to have fresh coffee. I thought, “No problem. I’ll just buy what I can use in a couple of days.”
WRONG!!!!
“Two weeks,” they said. Yes, definitely
15)puts a damper on the festivities.
“Wait, really?”
“Really.”
“And green coffee costs how much?”
“Maybe five or six bucks a pound, depending on what you get.”
“So, what about if I want the really good stuff, like that local shop has?”
“Oh, that? Two fifty or three bucks a pound.”
Denouement:
There is no denouement: only a continual journey. I roast a half a pound a week. I’m
exploring options for a higher-volume system.
Coffee is worth that.
To a coffee snob.
我不知道星巴克卖咖啡，”我咕哝道，显得有一丝好奇。
“可是——嗯……我是说，你真不知道星巴克是间咖啡店？”
“它不是……我所知道的咖啡店。”通常我不会这么快说出自己的想法，但是她看起来挺傻的。
“嗯，我喜欢它。”
“你当然喜欢啦！我以前也喜欢它。”
我走上咖啡势利眼之路完全是无意的。事情往往都是这样的。我们都不是自己决定要成为咖啡势利眼的。不像那些葡萄酒势利眼，他们之所以成为势利眼是因为那样很潮很酷。而每一个立志要成为咖啡势利眼的人最后却倒都变成了星巴克的粉丝，因为觉得做星巴克的粉丝很潮很酷。
在我的直系亲属中，我是唯一一个喝咖啡的人。我从十几岁时开始喝咖啡，在聚会上，在教会庆典上，在甜甜圈店里喝着这种泔水（我那时还不知道那些咖啡有多差！说真的！）。我们从不在家里喝咖啡，除非有外来的客人需要，而那时喝的也不过是随处可见的雀巢咖啡罢了。
我也喝雀巢。我喜欢它。最后，我开始喝什么都不加的黑咖啡。泔水。黑的。我知道。对不起。现在我了解多了。
在大学里，我喝自助餐厅里的咖啡。我在飞机上喝咖啡，在招待会上喝咖啡，在一切地方喝那些被称为是“咖啡”的褐色的水。但是，有一年情人节，我当时的女朋友送了我一个法式压滤壶。
而今，她曾是——据我所知，现在仍是——一个星巴克粉丝，虽然当时正是她教我如何分辨泔水和“好咖啡”的。于是我被迷住了，开始用压滤壶制作便宜的预磨咖啡（事先磨好的、非现磨咖啡）。
顿悟一：自动滴滤式咖啡壶在温度控制方面很糟糕。每杯咖啡不是煮焦了、蒸馏过度了，就是蒸馏不够，做出来的是煮焦的咖啡，既苦又酸。
于是现在我再也喝不下那些让我喝了那么多年所谓的咖啡。我知道咖啡原来是可以更好的。使人分别善恶的智慧之树通过显示事物的差别来摧毁事物，法式压滤壶也是如此。一旦你了解了其中的区别，就不可能再回到幸福的无知中去。而且，能享用最随手可得的咖啡真的是件坏事吗？后来，她又送了我一台研磨机。
顿悟二：研磨好咖啡之后立即烹煮是您提高自己咖啡品质最简单的方法。当然，我以前也使用从超市买的那些所谓上好的咖啡豆，既不知道是什么时候烘烤的，还装在神秘兮兮的容器里贴着国外的标签，如“哥伦比亚深烘”和“苏门答腊曼特宁”。
回首从前，我很惊讶自己居然能品尝出这些咖啡豆种的不同之处，不过我第一次喝曼特宁时感觉却是这样的——我依然记得当时自己满怀惊喜：“它本身居然是甜的，还带了点奶油味！这可是什么都没加的黑咖啡哦！”
多年来，我一直被人认为是个咖啡势利眼，虽然是名不副实。当别人点咖啡时，我通常会礼貌地拒绝，因为我知道自己不大可能会喜欢它。如果可以的话，我会去本地一些较好的咖啡店，享受一杯卡布奇诺。后来，我发现原来可以在零售店买到未经烘烤的生咖啡。
顿悟三：不新鲜的咖啡根本算不上是
咖啡。
我能说什么呢？我也不过是刚开始这段旅程，它的起因是我想买台意大利浓缩咖啡机。我想我可以在旧货店淘一个迷你型克鲁柏咖啡壶，然后用它来做咖啡。不过我的研究救了我——或者说让我走上了不归路。我发现要做出任何值得喝的饮品，你必须要有新鲜的咖啡。我想：“没问题。过两个天我就能买到我想要的东西吧。”
错了！！！！
“要等两个星期，”他们说。是的，绝对是当头一盆冷水。
“我只能等着，对吗？”
“没错。”
“那生咖啡怎么卖？”
“大概5到6美元一磅，看你要哪种而定。”
“那么，如果我想要那些真正的好货色呢，像那些本地商店里卖的那些？”
“哦，那些啊？2.5到3美元一磅就行。”
结局：
其实没有结局：只有继续的咖啡之旅。现在，我每周要烘烤半磅咖啡，还在寻找提高烘烤量的方法。
咖啡值得这么做。
对于一个咖啡势利眼来说……
“But—um ... I mean, you really don’t know
Starbucks is a coffee shop?”
“It’s not, that I’m aware of.” I generally don’t 4)tip my hand so quickly, but she looks like an 5)easy mark.
“Well I like it.”
“Of course you do! I used to like it, too.”
My path to coffee snobbery was innocent. It always is. There’s not a one of us who decided to become a coffee snob. Not like wine snobs. Wine snobs become wine snobs because it’s 6)hip and cool. Anyone who decides to become a coffee snob becomes a Starbucks Fanboy, because Starbucks Fandom is hip and cool.
The only coffee-drinker in my immediate family, I developed the taste as a teenager, drinking the 7)swill (I didn’t know it was swill! Honest!) served at parties, church functions, and 8)doughnut shops. We never had coffee around the house except when out-of-town company necessitated it, and then it was the 9)ubiquitous Nescafe.
I drank that, too. I loved it. Eventually, I got to drinking it black. Swill. Black. I know. I’m sorry. I know better now.
In college, I drank cafeteria coffee. I drank coffee on airplanes, coffee at receptions, coffee everywhere brown water went by that name. For one Valentine’s Day, my then-girlfriend gave me a French press.
Now, she was—and to my knowledge, still is—a Starbucks Fan. At the time, though, she was the one to teach me the difference between swill and “good coffee”. I became obsessed, and started making cheap pre-ground coffee in the press.
Epiphany the First: Automatic drip coffee-makers have poor temperature control; they scorch, overextract and underextract every cup of coffee, yielding a burnt cup that’s 10)paradoxically both bitter and sour.
So now I couldn’t drink the stuff I’d been served for most of my coffee-drinking years. I knew coffee could be better. 11)The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ruined things by demonstrating distinction; the French press did the same thing. Once you know the difference, there is no return to blissful ignorance. And is being able to enjoy the most easily-available type of coffee such a bad thing? Then she gave me a grinder.
Epiphany the Second: Grinding coffee immediately before brewing is the single biggest improvement you can make to your coffee. Granted, I was using roasted-who-knows-when beans from the supermarket mystery-bins labeled exotic wonderful things like “Columbian Dark Roast” and “12)Sumatra 13)Mandheling”.
Looking back, I’m astonished I could taste the varietal difference in those beans, but my first cup of a Mandheling was at this point: I still remember my gleeful astonishment. “It tastes sweet and a little creamy all on its own! Black!”
For several years, I was considered a coffee snob, though not really earning the title. I’d politely refuse coffee whenever it was offered, because I knew my poor odds of enjoying the cup. When I could, I’d go to some of the nicer local coffee-houses and enjoy a cappuccino. Then I discovered it was possible to procure, at retail, green, unroasted coffee.
Epiphany the Third: Coffee that is not fresh is hardly coffee at all.
What can I say? I’m still beginning this journey. It started with my wanting an espresso machine. I thought I could pick up a little mini-14)Krups at the thrift store and be done with it. My research saved me—or doomed me. I discovered that to make anything worth drinking, one had to have fresh coffee. I thought, “No problem. I’ll just buy what I can use in a couple of days.”
WRONG!!!!
“Two weeks,” they said. Yes, definitely
15)puts a damper on the festivities.
“Wait, really?”
“Really.”
“And green coffee costs how much?”
“Maybe five or six bucks a pound, depending on what you get.”
“So, what about if I want the really good stuff, like that local shop has?”
“Oh, that? Two fifty or three bucks a pound.”
Denouement:
There is no denouement: only a continual journey. I roast a half a pound a week. I’m
exploring options for a higher-volume system.
Coffee is worth that.
To a coffee snob.
我不知道星巴克卖咖啡，”我咕哝道，显得有一丝好奇。
“可是——嗯……我是说，你真不知道星巴克是间咖啡店？”
“它不是……我所知道的咖啡店。”通常我不会这么快说出自己的想法，但是她看起来挺傻的。
“嗯，我喜欢它。”
“你当然喜欢啦！我以前也喜欢它。”
我走上咖啡势利眼之路完全是无意的。事情往往都是这样的。我们都不是自己决定要成为咖啡势利眼的。不像那些葡萄酒势利眼，他们之所以成为势利眼是因为那样很潮很酷。而每一个立志要成为咖啡势利眼的人最后却倒都变成了星巴克的粉丝，因为觉得做星巴克的粉丝很潮很酷。
在我的直系亲属中，我是唯一一个喝咖啡的人。我从十几岁时开始喝咖啡，在聚会上，在教会庆典上，在甜甜圈店里喝着这种泔水（我那时还不知道那些咖啡有多差！说真的！）。我们从不在家里喝咖啡，除非有外来的客人需要，而那时喝的也不过是随处可见的雀巢咖啡罢了。
我也喝雀巢。我喜欢它。最后，我开始喝什么都不加的黑咖啡。泔水。黑的。我知道。对不起。现在我了解多了。
在大学里，我喝自助餐厅里的咖啡。我在飞机上喝咖啡，在招待会上喝咖啡，在一切地方喝那些被称为是“咖啡”的褐色的水。但是，有一年情人节，我当时的女朋友送了我一个法式压滤壶。
而今，她曾是——据我所知，现在仍是——一个星巴克粉丝，虽然当时正是她教我如何分辨泔水和“好咖啡”的。于是我被迷住了，开始用压滤壶制作便宜的预磨咖啡（事先磨好的、非现磨咖啡）。
顿悟一：自动滴滤式咖啡壶在温度控制方面很糟糕。每杯咖啡不是煮焦了、蒸馏过度了，就是蒸馏不够，做出来的是煮焦的咖啡，既苦又酸。
于是现在我再也喝不下那些让我喝了那么多年所谓的咖啡。我知道咖啡原来是可以更好的。使人分别善恶的智慧之树通过显示事物的差别来摧毁事物，法式压滤壶也是如此。一旦你了解了其中的区别，就不可能再回到幸福的无知中去。而且，能享用最随手可得的咖啡真的是件坏事吗？后来，她又送了我一台研磨机。
顿悟二：研磨好咖啡之后立即烹煮是您提高自己咖啡品质最简单的方法。当然，我以前也使用从超市买的那些所谓上好的咖啡豆，既不知道是什么时候烘烤的，还装在神秘兮兮的容器里贴着国外的标签，如“哥伦比亚深烘”和“苏门答腊曼特宁”。
回首从前，我很惊讶自己居然能品尝出这些咖啡豆种的不同之处，不过我第一次喝曼特宁时感觉却是这样的——我依然记得当时自己满怀惊喜：“它本身居然是甜的，还带了点奶油味！这可是什么都没加的黑咖啡哦！”
多年来，我一直被人认为是个咖啡势利眼，虽然是名不副实。当别人点咖啡时，我通常会礼貌地拒绝，因为我知道自己不大可能会喜欢它。如果可以的话，我会去本地一些较好的咖啡店，享受一杯卡布奇诺。后来，我发现原来可以在零售店买到未经烘烤的生咖啡。
顿悟三：不新鲜的咖啡根本算不上是
咖啡。
我能说什么呢？我也不过是刚开始这段旅程，它的起因是我想买台意大利浓缩咖啡机。我想我可以在旧货店淘一个迷你型克鲁柏咖啡壶，然后用它来做咖啡。不过我的研究救了我——或者说让我走上了不归路。我发现要做出任何值得喝的饮品，你必须要有新鲜的咖啡。我想：“没问题。过两个天我就能买到我想要的东西吧。”
错了！！！！
“要等两个星期，”他们说。是的，绝对是当头一盆冷水。
“我只能等着，对吗？”
“没错。”
“那生咖啡怎么卖？”
“大概5到6美元一磅，看你要哪种而定。”
“那么，如果我想要那些真正的好货色呢，像那些本地商店里卖的那些？”
“哦，那些啊？2.5到3美元一磅就行。”
结局：
其实没有结局：只有继续的咖啡之旅。现在，我每周要烘烤半磅咖啡，还在寻找提高烘烤量的方法。
咖啡值得这么做。
对于一个咖啡势利眼来说……