Every now and then, your columnist gets a penetrating insight about life.
These insights might often strike the naive and cynical as being mundane and unimportant, but I beg to differ. Every little brick counts in the edifice that is our understanding of life, and while my insights might not lead to a greater understanding of advanced physics, they do tend to be interesting in their own unique way. Or so I think, at any rate.
Here’s the insight I gleaned recently: the older one gets, the more there is a pressing need to be bonkers about something.
This “something” could be anything at all, but each of us needs a topic, a hobby, a collection – something – to retire into when the world around refuses to make sense. This could be collecting stamps, reading up on books written in the 16th century, watching YouTube videos about cats, or in the case of the current Indian captain, never naming the same XI twice over. Whatever it may be, we all need to have our obsession. It is our refuge from the madness around us.
And mine happens to be learning more about coffee.
I’m not quite sure about when exactly a side interest became an overriding urge, but I’ve now become hopelessly addicted to finding out more about this innocuous little bean. This has included buying various instruments and machines used to make coffee, like the one reviewed on Bunn Coffee Filters: Taste Benefits and Other Ways To Use Them. I’ve also enjoyed making trips to coffee farms to understand more about how it is grown, and also, believe it or not, drinking a cup of civet coffee. If you happen to be reading this column while having a meal or drinking a beverage, I’d recommend googling civet coffee a little later. Trust me on this one. I think it all started when I was getting bored with my daily coffee and wanted to try something new, so started to read tips from places like Ponbee on how to make coffee.
I have purchased, and since managed to break, three separate French presses, and currently use a drip filter machine to make my coffee at home.
I purchase my beans from an online store, and have them delivered once every two weeks or so, ground to a particular consistency. Combined with Easy to follow coffee brewing methods, I think I may have nearly mastered the perfect cup of coffee. The missus had, until recently, been treating the whole obsession with little more than an indulgent smile, but even she became a little worried when I spoke aloud about buying an inverted aeropress, and she realized that I was talking about making coffee, and not flying a plane.
Now, you may well ask what an inverted aeropress is, and what it might possibly do. But rather than recommend that you go and watch a YouTube video about it, I’m happy to report that you could actually make a little trip in Pune, have a cup of the inverted aeropress coffee, and to round things off, eat a ridiculously scrumptious dessert in the bargain.
All of these things are possible at a delightful little patisserie called the French Window. It used to be a little hole in the wall place in Koregaon Park, and they have recently shifted to slightly larger premises in the same area. I haven’t had a chance to try their entire menu, something I intend to remedy as soon as possible, but they did provide me with an opportunity to sample my first cup from an inverted aeropress – and it was every bit as good as I had been led to believe.
If you want to learn what a really great brew of coffee should taste and smell like, head on over to the French Window, and ask Eugene to brew a cuppa. I promise you won’t regret it.
Now, if you’re done with your meal, do look up that civet coffee thing. But only if you’re done eating.
He doesn't expect the paradox to be resolved in his lifetime
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