Arabica

April 20 2020

Coffee grows

in volcanic soil

on steep mountain slopes.

Under shade

in a precise range

of altitude and latitude

in a narrow band of cool.

Selected beans, the perfect blend

dried, washed, fermented.

The roast, the grind, the water

at the proper brewing temp  . . . 

   . . .  then left to infuse

exactly as directed.

Served hot, and black, and fresh.

In good company

in a thick ceramic mug

in early morning sun.
On a balcony or deck
basking in its glow,
or in a hurried gulp, rushing out the door.

In the complicated process
that brings this coffee home
each step

is contingent and essential

and depends on those before.

So that first glorious sip
of freshly brewed java

must be an intentional act

of gratitude,

savoured slowly, eyes closed.

The jolt

the heat

aroma,

bitter-sweet and floral

nutty, citrus, smoke.

Or industrial coffee

in a throw-away cup

with milk and sugar, cold.

I could never write poetry

without my steamy brown elixir.
Both delicious and addictive
it stimulates my brain
culls and hones my words.

Which, I know, the world would hardly miss.

But oh, how I crave caffeine.

And not weak tea or cola

or some soulless pharmaceutical.

Only the beautiful bean itself;
my habit of arabica
bad as it is.

Grown in the tropics

in rich volcanic soil

on shady mountain slopes.

Adam Gopnik has an interesting piece on coffee in today's New Yorker. I was drinking mine as I read it. The usual stuff:  addiction, exploited workers, environmental concerns. But all I wanted to do was celebrate my precious elixir!

When I sent the first draft of this poem to a friend, he emailed me a link to a local coffee roaster: all fair trade and organic and small seasonal batches. Which sounds very virtuous. I wrote back questioning whether I should be embarrassed to confess that I drink Starbucks: that great industrial quasi-monopoly that overcharges for its mass consumption product, and seems hypocritical in posing as a high end gourmet specialty blend. (Actually, it is better than the usual donut shop stuff. And I have no pretension when it comes to coffee: I like what I like; I don't care about the esoterics of terroir and cultivar and roasting techniques -- unlike the persona I assumed to write this poem; and fancy labels don't impress me. Not to mention that I brew my own, so cost is reasonable.) There is a story here.

My coffee addiction began around age 12 or so with Chock Full 'O Nuts. Their catchword is "the heavenly coffee", and Gopnik pokes a little fun at the hyperbole of that. Trouble with his mocking is that it's true:  that coffee was absolutely superb. I still fantasize about it. 

More trouble. About 10 years ago, they cheapened their blend. Coffee was expensive at the time, and they were economizing. I kept buying it, thinking I had just gotten a bad batch. And even worse, I was buying it in bulk, since I had to import it myself. (They used to sell it here, but for some reason distribution ended.) I finally went online, and noticed a discussion thread about this -- and learned the truth. 

It took about a year of trial and error and miserable coffee to try to find a substitute. In the end, it was Starbucks' True North. I left trying Starbucks right to the end of my tasting odyssey:  both because I thought their preference for really dark roasts wouldn't appeal to me (which is true), and because I just did not see myself as a Starbucks drinker! But when they relented to market pressure and started coming out with these "blonde" blends, I relented as well. I mix it with a bit of Nabob's Organic something-or-other to give it a bit more body, and then brew using an old fashioned Melitta cone with my reverse osmosis filtered well-water. One secret is to let the water cool for a while after bringing it to a boil. Don't brew with boiling water. Too hot for the beans. (So maybe not pretentious, but still picky!)

In the meantime, the food bank received what they must have regarded as an unusual donation of a pile of over-sized vacuum cans of Chock Full 'O Nuts. At least my wasted purchase was able to make someone happy!