A Love Letter to Coffee

I’m a coffee lover. I am, really. I love coffee. I just love it, all of it, every part of it.

I love how it’s made, and where it comes from. I love that coffee starts as a seed and grows into a cherry that contains a bean that is harvested by farmers in different countries all over the world. These farmers take great pride in their craft to grow high-quality beans with rich, diverse, exciting flavors.

I love that coffee is completely universal. In nearly every country around the world, people drink coffee. Despite all the artificial boundaries that we’ve created in our modern world, coffee is one of those truly special, rare things that binds us as humans. No matter the culture we come from or the language we speak, we all share a common respect for a great cup of coffee.

I love that it takes craftsmanship to create excellence with coffee. A machine can’t make the best latté you’ve ever had; a person must do that.

I love that there are so many different methods for brewing coffee. Some people prefer a single-cup pour over instead of a Chemex. Some people do Siphon brewing. Sometimes you use a french press. And sometimes people just lift a little spoon out of a bag half a dozen times, fill a tank with some water and flip a switch to “on”.

I love how primitive brewing a cup of coffee is. The process involves pouring hot water over some crushed up beans. That’s it. No chemicals or preservatives, no ingredients or nutritional information to double-check. It’s just coffee, plain and simple.

I love that I can drink coffee any time of the day, any time of the year. Nothing beats a hot cup of joe on a cold morning, but in the summer months I love to get New Orleans iced coffee from Blue Bottle after lunch. And I love a nice cappuccino to mark the end of my work day and transition smoothly into the evening.

I love how coffee tastes, and I love the haunting aroma emitted by coffee beans — the raw materials. I love how coffee makes me feel warm and centered, in the same way some people feel about tea.

I love that coffee has well-documented health benefits. Seriously, I’d have a real long-term health problem on my hands if I felt this strongly about alcohol, drugs or cigarettes.

I love that coffee, like wine-making, involves a great deal of craftsmanship at each stage of production. The farmers must do a good job of planting and harvesting to grow beautiful, flavorful and unique beans. But you also need a roaster who knows how to expertly roast the beans in order to draw out the flavors just right.

I love that the world’s most upscale coffee is carefully harvested by humans out of some obscure animal’s poo.

I love coffee mugs. I love that a prominent drinking apparatus exists to hold exactly one type of beverage. All other drinking apparati are used for so many different types of beverages. But mugs are only for coffee. I just think that’s cool.

I love coffee shops. I love that groups of creative, inspired people go to a special place only to drink coffee and work alone, together. A coffee shop is a place of energy and inspiration. There’s a reason people open up their laptops to write the next great American novel at coffee shops, and not diners.

Coffee. I love it.