Today. Today is the day I start my journey into the world of coffee. I am not talking about the commercialized cup of joe to jump start your day. I am talking about coffee. The coffee that you appreciate as you sip. And down to its core, a brewed concoction from a roasted coffee bean from a coffee plant. It is widely agreed upon that coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia where farmers documented that this plant could prolong their work days if brewed into a drink. To this day, that is how coffee is generally viewed, and how I used to view it. A beverage to prolong your working day: a burst of energy and concentration in the mornings. I don’t have to tell you how many times I’ve heard- “Not now, I need coffee first” or “Sorry, I am not awake yet- haven’t had my coffee yet.” Everyone has their own interpretation of what coffee is so I’m not here to make a generalization or to argue what is a good cup of coffee. I am here to tell you my own story through my eyes: how coffee has started as an equivalent to caffeine and morning routine to a concoction that boasts a spectrum of colors on the palate: the variables that can contribute to the slightest nuances of tasting notes- accumulating to a very subjective great cup of coffee based on a story of its creator. I am here to tell those stories and discover why a brewed cup of beans is more than just caffeine: how every step in the supply chain brews down into a cup of great coffee.
Today, I sat down at a quaint coffee shop in the Upper East Side in New York. It is a Sunday on the last day of April. It is drizzling. It is not cold or warm but you would regret walking outside without a second layer. The coffee shop was empty when I got there. Perfect. I would get to talk to the barista a little bit. Small talk gave hints that this shop has their own coffee bean farm in Puerto Rico, where they grow and roast locally before shipping to their outlet cafes. They change beans every 2 weeks to ensure peak freshness. What happens to the beans that don’t get used during that time?- I thought but did not ask. This was a third wave coffee shop- more on that later in my blog. I chose the pourover and their signature coffee bean: Supremo. The barista got to work, measuring out the precise weight of beans to be brewed while I settled into a nook inside their outdoor cover. Here is where my coffee journey began. Exactly 10 minutes later, I got my coffee in a togo cup. I had the same thought, here is where my coffee journey began. The first thing I did was pop the lid and immediately my senses were overwhelmed by how different this coffee smells compared to the coffee I had two days ago at work. At work, it was just dark. All I got was dark. But it served its purpose, got me focused on the day’s tasks. Here, in this coffee shop, I smelled coffee like I never did before. Strange- it smells very much like cinnamon and dirt. It was very earthy. Right off, I think I like it. The color of the concoction was lighter than I expected, almost caramel color or a barrel aged bourbon. First sip. Cinnamon. Second sip. Cinnamon…. and earth. I liked it. This is not to say this is the best coffee I have ever had but then again this is the first time I took the time to really appreciate what I was drinking. For some reason, every subsequent sip until the last, I can only taste a Mexican hot chocolate. Not sure if everyone knows what that is but basically a hot chocolate mixed with spices…mostly cinnamon. This makes sense. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it. Overall, this was a good first cup of this journey. How can a 10 minute brewed concoction of plant beans have these kinds of flavors with no fillers and nothing extra added ? This is the answer I’m searching for on my journey into coffee.
Update to this. On my way out, I decided to get the drip coffee version of their Supremo beans. To my surprise, almost all if not all hints of cinnamon were gone. It tasted as if I was trying a totally different bean. It was more earthy/dark, smooth and more acidic. This brings another question into the equation, how do different brewing methods affect the end result ? In this case, it seems that the brewing method makes a vast difference. If I focus, I can still vaguely taste the Mexican hot chocolate that I tasted in the pourover version but it seems almost a stretch. In my upcoming blogs, we will dive deeper into the different brewing methods and how it affects the overall taste.
Coffee shop:
787 Coffee
340 E 70th St, New York, NY 10021
Beans: Supremo
Brewing: Drip , Pourover
Ranking: TBD
Coffee and Me 
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