Am I different connoisseur than I was 26 years ago?
Without question, yes! One broad distinction is that whenever I was tasting coffee in my younger days, it was more of a coffee-nerd session and a moment of critique. Was the acidity too high or too low? Did I enjoy the viscosity and mouthfeel? Did the chocolate or caramel note present well? Was the aftertaste right? Was the blend consistent from day to day? Should we make any changes?
After a few decades, the accumulation of knowledge probably changes the experience a bit. Today, it’s likely that most of those questions still linger in each cup, but they are between the lines; they are background notes now. Coffee today is much more about a pause from the busyness of life. While I still want a beautiful espresso experience, the contemplative aspects are more of a gratitude nature than a dissection process. I’m still alive! I can share this with friends and family! I have a life where I can enjoy a nice coffee, which not everybody gets to do.
Of course, it wasn’t caffeine that was my initial attraction to the industry. It became important to me while having coffee together with my grandfather every morning during summer breaks from school, visiting him in the farming communities of rural northern Colorado. Having an awesome grandfather to look up to and want to be like really shaped the community aspect of coffee from a young age. Sharing something like coffee, and, for that matter, coffee time with someone was getting ironed into the fabric of who I would become, what I would give my life to, and how I would eventually come to see coffee as a platform for relationships. In some sense, coffee was just an excuse to have a conversation. And to slow down a bit.
And yet, for all of the wonderful coffees that I have had on my own, the most memorable ones were while sharing the time with someone else. As much as coffee is a very personal thing (read: drink customization), it is a most social thing. Perhaps more often than not, the coffee experience is a sort of social glue, holding together business meetings, job interviews, first dates, and conversations for connecting with people you love spending time with.
