I drink 5~6 cups of coffee everyday. 2 of them are steamed coffee with hot water and rest are instant. I’ve drunk coffee for about 14 years;about half of my life. The tools I use to make coffee has changed from just instant coffee vendor to steam coffee machine, and the time I drink has also varied through years. I’m not working in coffee-related industry, but I have long memory of coffee in my life, so I felt to talk about it on this blog. This could be a good advice, but I think sharing my experience would be meaningful.
Instant coffee
The first coffee I drank was an instant. My high school had a vending machine for coffee and tea. At first I drank only cocoa through the machine. Since at that time almost all of us studied by 10pm, when it becomes cold after Sun set, we used to drink tea. There were 5 kinds of Korean traditional tea, Cocoa, and coffee. Coffee was supposed to be for teachers. The sweetness of cocoa let me awake again before finish the day's assignment, and felt like giving me refreshment.
One day, after a whole-day-long test, my friend and I were talking about our future. The route we expected needed University graduation and Entering University gave us too much stress. Even I don't understand how I thought to talk about it with my friends. If I were more concentrating on studying, I wouldn't waste my time for such an inefficient activity. Anyway, two or three of them drank the vending machine’s instant coffee everyday, and the day, one of them brought a cup of coffee for me. They said that it’s helpful when we feel sleepy. And I spread it onto other friends who talk with me. I didn't feel any effect of coffee. When I was sleepy, I just got some sleep for 10~15 minutes. What made me drink coffee again and again was just the taste. The Instant coffee was sweet at first, but later there was a bitter taste in depth. I knew already about the sugar, but else was stunning. I couldn’t forget the moment I felt hot, sweetness and bitterness at once. After the day, I often drank instant coffee, but not much, just 4~5 times a month. I shall confess that when we were drinking coffee on the small paper cups, we felt as if we already became adults.
The instant coffee was with even after I entered a University. In my memory, there was no brand coffee branch in my hometown, Bucheon, but there were some around the University buildings;Starbucks and Coffeebeans. I didn’t know even they were selling coffee. Still my friend and me were drinking instant 5-cent-coffee. The machine was on the other side of corridor of our circle. It was just about 20 steps far from the room and we had card games or computer games battle to send one to bring the coffee. And used to drink 5~6 cups of coffee a night when I study whole night before take a test. There was a vending machine in front of the library too. Before I met the Starbucks in 2005, I drank only the cheap and full-sugar coffee almost everyday.
Drop coffee
2006 was a significant year for me. It was the last year as a student, and also the year I entered the company I'm working for now. A year earlier, I tasted a cup of steamed coffee at McDonald's. I felt just a bitter taste from it and the cup was really big for coffee, I thought. For a year, I didn't forget the taste, while my mother introduced drop coffee. Drop coffee was not bitter. She used to drink coffee after every meal, and it was a good start to drink dark coffee for me.
In 2006, I moved to another city for work. The electric power plant was 2 hours far from my family house. The first thing I did in the new apartment was buying a coffee grinder. What I was going to do was just drinking drop coffee after meal just as at home, but I found some other items to make coffee. There were the Presso coffee maker and steam coffee maker. The Presso coffee maker was beautiful and not that much difficult to use, and steam coffee maker was easy to use and it was what the coffee machine I’ve imagined. However, finally I chose the mocha port. The reason was just the price. I didn’t have enough money to buy what I wanted. At that time, for me the most important goal was saving.
The Mocha Port
The reason, as I mentioned, was the price, but the mocha port was satisfying. As well as the taste, the time takes to make coffee was not that long. I remember the picture of a mocha port catching my eyes on the surface of a book about coffee. The book said that the mocha port is the easiest and cheapest way to enjoy espresso. Actually it was only $3.5 and it was for 2 people. I didn’t need bigger one, because I was living alone. I ordered one in an online coffee tools store and two days later got it.
I carried coffee with a big portable coffee cup. Sipping in the street was sweet especially in Winter. My company uses its own commuting buses to carry people, just as Homer Simpson, and the time we are waiting for the buses is somewhat long. The second winter was quite warm with the big cup and hot coffee.
When my wife and I want to drink very dark coffee, we still sometimes use the mocha port with very weak fire for 10 minutes. The bitterest but attractive coffee is called ‘the coffee of devil in a mocha port’ in Korea.
The steam coffee machine
Not a long time later, the drop coffee machine my mother was using was broken, so I decided to buy my mother a steam coffee machine. The machine was square-like shape so that it was easy to locate at any position in the kitchen. However, my mother didn’t know how to use it, despite I told her every time I went back home, and finally she bought a new drop coffee machine. The steam coffee machine was just left on a corner of kitchen and later, when I got married, she gave me to use with my wife. Now she tells me that, the problem of the steam coffee machine was the annoying noisy, and that it makes coffee so dark.
After she gave me back the machine, the machine occupied the main position of our kitchen instead of the mocha port. We like it because we don’t need to keep beside while it works and it takes shorter time. It mainly changed my morning life. Before the machine, before I leave for work, I couldn’t enjoy coffee. Now, I make coffee and bring it in a shiny tumbler. I drink the half on the way to the office, and I finally fill it the left half with hot water, and drink it in the bus. The scent’s gone mostly, but it is warm again and less stimulating before having dinner.
However, I still often drink instant coffee in the office. The sugar feels giving me a power to push my office works. Yes, the sugar works very well.
My Wife
At first, my wife didn’t like the dark black coffee. Actually her family has drunk instant only for years. Every time I visit her house, I found boxes of the stick-shape instant coffee products. After marriage we drank coffee after meal as my mother does. For several weeks she asked me for sugar. She enjoyed the coffee enough, but just the bitterness of the deep flow was not her favor. However, now, she drinks coffee with me without sugar. The square sugar I bought for her is finally expired. For us, sugar is only matched well with the instant coffee.
When I’m exhausted, it is very good to have coffee with a brawny. And when I take brawny out of the fridge, my wife sits beside me with forks. Two Starbucks mugs(we bought these two years ago already) and a small brawny dish. They simply makes our afternoon conversation more fruitful.
Sometimes I look around in a city. In Korea, if you find a brand coffee shop, you can see more easily. Starbucks are always with Coffee beans or Angel in us coffee shops. Of course I usually don’t drink them; it is too expensive to buy there everyday. I enjoy at home, or bring it in a heat-proof bottle. But even just looking at coffee shops makes me fell comfortable. I know how it feels sitting in the windows. I am one of so many people who like coffee.