How to make coffee #4 Enjoy life

I'm known for my love of coffee and for making it strong, I don't make it that strong it's just that most people make it very weak! Like I say, it's not about the caffeine but about the flavour, and a small mug of well made coffee is exquisite with breakfast, mid-morning, or after a meal. A well made coffee goes well with a good book or a newspaper, but it's just as good served with good friends and interesting conversation.

Mark Driscoll says Starbucks is "Where lonely people gather together to drink burnt coffee and ignore one another in community." Which is only true because we all buy into that social convention, why not be sociable - look up and say hello. The modern Espresso Bar has the potential to be a social hub though Driscoll's observation is largely true. It's horrendously expensive to drink good coffee outside your own home, and yet something is appealing about being in a room with others, with the mug, and having a trained barista make the coffee for us. What's lacking is the answer to the observation that it's not good for man to be alone. We're made for relationships.

Coffee is best drunk within about 20 minutes of making but you can stare at an empty cup for some time, savouring the taste. Don't gulp it down, look at the colour and the Crema, wash it around your mouth before drinking. A good strong coffee is comforting and uplifting. Stop, slow down, take your time, pause to enjoy the finer things of life such as the taste of a good cup of coffee. Remember that the coffee, the rain, the technology and discovery, the electricity, the water, the mug and the company are all good gifts from God to be enjoyed as such.