So, Coffee.
I fucking love it. It's delicious stuff, it keeps me awake, it's absolutely wonderful!
When it's not instant.
It also has somewhat romantic connotations. I love the potential image of stumbling downstairs slowly after a long passionate night, making a nice hot pot of coffee - pouring a slightly over-filled cup of nectar (rounding it off with some milk and suger) just to press it to my lips as my boyfriend appears from seemingly nowhere and hugs around my waist to kiss me as I drink. It makes me smile. That or heading out on a cold and winter-y day to the coffee shop to pick up a cup, heading back to my boyfriend and snuggling into him to warm up with a nice warm drink. They both make me feel 'warm and fuzzies'.
When it's not instant.
After a long day at school, or walking or running, nothing cheers me up more (in a drink) than the warm smell; the deep brown inviting and soothing colour; the frothy milk that tops it, with chocolate sprinkles on top...it's all terribly inviting and makes me want a cup whenever I envision it.
When it's not instant.
What is there in my house right now?
Not the usual combination of instant (mother's choice) and the Real McCoy - no, sir.
I find to my dismay, only instant.
Coffee is getting more and more expensive. My local supermarket - think Wal-Mart, Americans! - neither stocks the brand of coffee I enjoy the most ("Lavazza Decaf", for those interested and/or in-the-know), nor stocks alternative brands at a price i am willing to pay. My prefered brand is merely £2 from the supermarket in-town, why can't my local stock the same thing? I'm not going to pay a whole damn £4 for their rubbish home brand? I deserve my coffee to be cheap and affordable! I understand the economical climate, but god! I need my caffiene!
If I cannot buy real coffee, I'm certainly not going to deal with having just instant coffee. The warmth, the flavour, the colour: All gone. It's lost, tasteless, and mottled by the colour of oils that were used to bind the already ground, reprocessed beans, which rise to the surface, marr the flavour, and destroy the texture. Not to mention how it reacts to sugar, becoming overtly sweet with too little sugar. All of these things destroy the integrity of the 'good stuff'. Really grinds at me, you know?
And what's worse is that (returning the money) instant is more expensive than 'real' coffee anyways! A large glass jar of Nescafe is exactly the same in price as my locals (ridiculously overpriced) home brand columbian bean! Not only is it more flavoursome, it's more warm in texture, smoother, and just nicer in general: Why then would anyone blow their money on the cheap stuff!
Think about the integrity of the bean for just a minute. Small, intricately patterned beans, backed full of warm, dark, almost-nutty flavour. Bought for next-to-nothing on the arabic and columbian markets (the most commonly known) good companies will take the beans and grind them, package them, and sell them on to the consumer for a profit. Fairtrade companies that employ bean-growers give thousands of pounds back to the producers a year - much more than fields owned (indirectly) by Nescafe and other brands like Kenco do.
Nescafe (more than Kenco) use the worst beans on the market, grown at accelerated rates using pesticides, fertilisers, and genetically modified seeds to produce thier flavourless beans, which once picked and destroyed in industrial grinders, and mixed with oils to not only return them to a bean-like image (if only) but also to make it look to the consumer that they have more to offer. In actuality, they use the same amount of beans as brands like Lavazza, and their ridiculous shape makes it look like more is on offer. Not to mention the chemicals they use to add flavour to the 'beans'!, and the waste that goes into rivers from chemicals that can no longer be used, or are dangerous. Kenco at least credit the farmers with a bit more pay, but Nescafe's employees certainly see none of it.
And what do we buy instant coffee for? Simple. Laziness. Idleness. Lethargy. These beans are produced to satisfy the human condition to want everything in the here and now. And people don't know who to brew the damn stuff any more. It's not too hard. A basic coffee pot (the one with the 'plunger' costs about £2/3 out of Asda (Wal-mart). Shove in a measure of beans, fill with water, put on lid and press. That seems more instant to me than any "instant" brands that are currently around. We do not have time to wait on coffee brewing properly, we have no patience to make the perfect cup of warmth. No, we need it fast, regardless of flavour, regardless of chemical input. We'd rather poison ourselves and leave a bitter after-taste in our mouths than drink something that has been proven to be beneficial and medicinal when left in it's ground form. If we satarted to think not of the need for caffiene, but of coffee in terms of economy, integrity, and benefit to the physical earth, I'd rather drink the ground stuff. What's so difficult about shoving some healthy powder in a pot and adding water? Goodness knows what.
And if you insist on buying 'cheap', nasty instant coffee, at least buy Kenco, which IS a fairtrade company. I'd rather see you drinking crappy coffee with a good moral than one without.
~Klone
I fucking love it. It's delicious stuff, it keeps me awake, it's absolutely wonderful!
When it's not instant.
It also has somewhat romantic connotations. I love the potential image of stumbling downstairs slowly after a long passionate night, making a nice hot pot of coffee - pouring a slightly over-filled cup of nectar (rounding it off with some milk and suger) just to press it to my lips as my boyfriend appears from seemingly nowhere and hugs around my waist to kiss me as I drink. It makes me smile. That or heading out on a cold and winter-y day to the coffee shop to pick up a cup, heading back to my boyfriend and snuggling into him to warm up with a nice warm drink. They both make me feel 'warm and fuzzies'.
When it's not instant.
After a long day at school, or walking or running, nothing cheers me up more (in a drink) than the warm smell; the deep brown inviting and soothing colour; the frothy milk that tops it, with chocolate sprinkles on top...it's all terribly inviting and makes me want a cup whenever I envision it.
When it's not instant.
What is there in my house right now?
Not the usual combination of instant (mother's choice) and the Real McCoy - no, sir.
I find to my dismay, only instant.
Coffee is getting more and more expensive. My local supermarket - think Wal-Mart, Americans! - neither stocks the brand of coffee I enjoy the most ("Lavazza Decaf", for those interested and/or in-the-know), nor stocks alternative brands at a price i am willing to pay. My prefered brand is merely £2 from the supermarket in-town, why can't my local stock the same thing? I'm not going to pay a whole damn £4 for their rubbish home brand? I deserve my coffee to be cheap and affordable! I understand the economical climate, but god! I need my caffiene!
If I cannot buy real coffee, I'm certainly not going to deal with having just instant coffee. The warmth, the flavour, the colour: All gone. It's lost, tasteless, and mottled by the colour of oils that were used to bind the already ground, reprocessed beans, which rise to the surface, marr the flavour, and destroy the texture. Not to mention how it reacts to sugar, becoming overtly sweet with too little sugar. All of these things destroy the integrity of the 'good stuff'. Really grinds at me, you know?
And what's worse is that (returning the money) instant is more expensive than 'real' coffee anyways! A large glass jar of Nescafe is exactly the same in price as my locals (ridiculously overpriced) home brand columbian bean! Not only is it more flavoursome, it's more warm in texture, smoother, and just nicer in general: Why then would anyone blow their money on the cheap stuff!
Think about the integrity of the bean for just a minute. Small, intricately patterned beans, backed full of warm, dark, almost-nutty flavour. Bought for next-to-nothing on the arabic and columbian markets (the most commonly known) good companies will take the beans and grind them, package them, and sell them on to the consumer for a profit. Fairtrade companies that employ bean-growers give thousands of pounds back to the producers a year - much more than fields owned (indirectly) by Nescafe and other brands like Kenco do.
Nescafe (more than Kenco) use the worst beans on the market, grown at accelerated rates using pesticides, fertilisers, and genetically modified seeds to produce thier flavourless beans, which once picked and destroyed in industrial grinders, and mixed with oils to not only return them to a bean-like image (if only) but also to make it look to the consumer that they have more to offer. In actuality, they use the same amount of beans as brands like Lavazza, and their ridiculous shape makes it look like more is on offer. Not to mention the chemicals they use to add flavour to the 'beans'!, and the waste that goes into rivers from chemicals that can no longer be used, or are dangerous. Kenco at least credit the farmers with a bit more pay, but Nescafe's employees certainly see none of it.
And what do we buy instant coffee for? Simple. Laziness. Idleness. Lethargy. These beans are produced to satisfy the human condition to want everything in the here and now. And people don't know who to brew the damn stuff any more. It's not too hard. A basic coffee pot (the one with the 'plunger' costs about £2/3 out of Asda (Wal-mart). Shove in a measure of beans, fill with water, put on lid and press. That seems more instant to me than any "instant" brands that are currently around. We do not have time to wait on coffee brewing properly, we have no patience to make the perfect cup of warmth. No, we need it fast, regardless of flavour, regardless of chemical input. We'd rather poison ourselves and leave a bitter after-taste in our mouths than drink something that has been proven to be beneficial and medicinal when left in it's ground form. If we satarted to think not of the need for caffiene, but of coffee in terms of economy, integrity, and benefit to the physical earth, I'd rather drink the ground stuff. What's so difficult about shoving some healthy powder in a pot and adding water? Goodness knows what.
And if you insist on buying 'cheap', nasty instant coffee, at least buy Kenco, which IS a fairtrade company. I'd rather see you drinking crappy coffee with a good moral than one without.
~Klone
