December 16, 2020
Reflection: One cup a day offers a lifetime of opportunities to pause and be grateful.
Today, I'm grateful for: A perfect cup of coffee
Challenge: Find one small daily task/process/moment that you can really indulge in. Try it!
Maybe it's the winter settling in. Maybe it's the retirement of my summer athleisure-wear and the sweater szn officially taking hold. Maybe it's just the way that bold scent of coffee punches me in the face when I walk in the door after dropping my son off from daycare. Either way, my affinity for a good cup of coffee runs deep.
Coffee has always been a bit of a sacred thing for me. Those first few moments of holding your cup, taking a sip and indulging in the peacefulness of that moment can be a moment of pure bliss. It offers me a chance to pause, to exercise my many senses, and to be grateful. One of my favorite ways to start the day is to sit with a perfectly hot fresh cup of coffee and watch the sunrise. In the summer months, I do this in my hammock chair (my favorite piece of furniture at our house). In the winter months, a peek out the dining room window offers a fresh perspective for a new day as the sun rises above the horizon. Even on the crazy days, just a few seconds can still cultivate that feeling of gratitude.
I became a bit of a coffee snob a few years ago when my husband and I moved into our new house. Here are our favorite tools for our perfect cup of coffee:
Fresh-ground beans: When I was younger, I never understood why people would buy whole bean coffee when you could buy it already ground for you! Now I get it. I’m a firm believer that fresh ground beans make for a fresher, bolder cup of coffee. I’m guessing that’s where this ‘coffee bean punch in the face’ scent comes from. Isn’t that how Starbucks does it??
Pour-over coffee maker: I’m sure there’s a lot more science behind why these things work the way they do, but we use this pour-over coffee maker, and love it. It’s the perfect size for two, and cleans up easy.
Unbleached. filters: We had used your typical coffee pot for years before learning that the white filters you buy are made white through one of two methods: chlorine (which was found to be one of the most significant environmental issues in pulp and paper mills in a 2012 report) or oxygen bleaching. Either way, I didn’t want either of those floating around in my hot cup of morning joe. So we opted for these, and hope that we’re doing the environment a bit of a favor in the process.
Kettle and the perfect water temp: I don’t think a kettle is necessarily a must-have, but it does help with the pour-over process. We have our water-temp preference down to a science (a solid 196 degrees). Once our water reaches that temp, we make our pour-over, and voila!
Might seem like overkill, but for me, a good cup of coffee is a perfect way to reset and kick off the start to a great day.
Do you have a favorite coffee drink? (And for the record, my Starbucks order is usually a caramel macchiato, preferably iced in the non-winter months!).
XO
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