Part-Time Lover

Coffee is pretty forgiving. Not "like riding a bike," because I'm sure if I stopped riding a bike for a long time and then tried to start again, I'd be right back to falling over and steering directly into traffic all over again. That's just how I am.

But no, coffee is forgiving, and coffee drinkers are forgiving.

"Oh, I haven't seen you in a while!"
Yes, I have a new job most days of the week.
"Good for you! I'm glad to see you here, though."
Thank you, and the same to you! Here is your large latte to stay.



As it is, I'm still not especially good at my other job (I just started and it's pretty hard!), and so these two-days-a-week behind the counter are basically a vanity trip for me: At the shop I'm just as much of a minor-league hot shot as I was four, five months ago when I ran part of the show.

(Of course I say "hot shot" here with a healthy portion of tongue in cheek, but you know what I mean.)

Today was one of those days when hitting quick at the store is your salvation, your daily bread, the thing that reminds you why you're in this sweltering, foul-smelling city in the first place: You like people, and you like coffee, and you like people who like coffee. It's that simple.

I don't often make any major pronouncements here about the benefits or detriments of, say, weighing grinds as opposed to setting one's Roburs up to timers, or about the amount of robusta that goes into a quality espresso blend, because while I have my own opinions about that nonsense, the Internet is full of people weighing in on these points ad nauseam. I'm here and I write in this thing because coffee is one of the things in my life that I find incessantly, consistently and entirely inspiring, if I'll let it be.



The point of this blog, if I may be allowed to even pretend that the silly thing has a point, is, I hope, to remind myself and maybe one or two other coffee professionals about the people of this business, and the heart of it, and the soul of it.

This is a fun job, possibly the world's funnest job (to coin a phrase). The art of it is as rewarding as the boundless science. But to lose sight of its overall purpose, to the good that it does the world to sell a good cup of coffee, that is a tragedy to me. And what goes along with that is to be patient, kind, smart, fast, fun, funny, generous and business-minded.