Coffee Ritual

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rousseau. You are listening to the podcast One Life. Today we're going to talk about the coffee break. I was on YouTube browsing some pictures. I'm actually planning a trip to Europe this upcoming march, and I was trying to get inspired as to some of the places I'm going to visit, as well as the cafes. And I came across this one video about the Italian coffee culture or the ritual of coffee in Italy. And they were talking in this video, they were talking about whether or not to go cups would ever make it in Italy. And the woman who was being interviewed said, no way in hell we would never do a to go cup. Because the coffee ritual for us is about taking that break. It's that short little break we get to take away from work to step out, talk with friends, even if it's only for a moment. We have it in the porcelain cup. We drink it right then and there, and then we go back. I thought that was something that was very beautiful because so much of that ritual is involved in my own ritual of coffee. It's about taking that moment to step away from life and to see life differently. Converse with friends, think about what it is that you want. I'm kind of going out. This is how I use coffee. Looking back over my travels, I realized that in a lot of ways, that was how I used coffee. A few years back, I went to Japan and I was in Tokyo. If you've ever been to Tokyo, there are people everywhere. It could be a little bit stifling at times, because everywhere you go, there's just crowds of people. You're on a subway, there's just like. There's like a train of people, like an ocean of people kind of flowing, getting ready to flood you. And I was in the Tokyo train station, and as I was kind of going around twisting and turning, I found the ILI Cafe. Ili, Italian brand from Trieste. And I was like, oh, my gosh, this is godsend. So I sit down, I started talking to the local barista, and I said, let me have a cappuccino and let me have an espresso. And he said, okay, I'll bring it over to you. So I grabbed one of the tables, and then all of a sudden, everything panned out. I got really quiet, and I started taking the world. As he brought over my cappuccino and my espresso, I sat there just kind of sipping it. And I love the fact that time slowed down for me and I was fully immersed, fully present in that cup of Coffee in that moment, that was just one of the ways that I had used coffee more recently. I went to South Africa, I've been to Vietnam, Singapore, and the same thing is true with that. But I started, having been aware of that ritual and how I used it in Japan, one of my friends was like, well, next time you go see yourself, how were you using coffee? And so much of it was for coffee. I used it as a tool to meet people as well. Anytime I would meet anyone traveling, if you traveled with me and you're listening to this, you know this is true. Leave a comment. I invite people out for a cup of coffee. I say, hey, hi, my name is Donnie. Oh, actually, the name is usually the last thing that comes up. First thing you say is, hey, where are you from? And then like, oh, I'm from Germany. Okay, I'm from the United States. How long you travel for? Blah, blah, blah. I'm about to go get a cup of coffee. Would you like to join me? And then I would invite the people for coffee. We'd go somewhere and maybe talk for an hour, sipping a cup of coffee. And then all of a sudden that slowed down. And from what I was told with some of the friends that I met abroad, especially when I was in Vietnam most recently, was that that was one of the highlights of the trip. We were just sit there and take coffee. More people. We would see more people that we knew from the hostel or something. They would come in, hey, why don't you come join us? And all of a sudden, we'd have a crowd of people sitting there having coffee. And it was amazing. So, so much of it was stopping and making friends was part of that ritual for me. And then the third part, the third aspect of coffee that really, really pulls me in is this idea of not perfection. It's not perfection. It's like watching someone pull a shot of espresso. There's so many little details that go into making a cup of coffee, pulling a shot of espresso, and I am infatuated with all of it. I love watching the entire process happen because it's like, especially Japan, for example, everything is like this beautiful symphony which, you know, like, at the right time, the drums come in. All of a sudden, the brass instruments start playing in the strings, and it's this beautiful, balanced symphony. And I get lost in all those little details when I. Yeah, depending. Sometimes it's not a symphony, Sometimes it's a cacophony. When I watch plays, I'm like, oh, my God, this is how they're making the coffee unless it's the way they traditionally make it in their culture, in which case I am totally fine if the coffee quality is not that good because I'm experiencing it the way they do it. But there had been times where I would go in and I'm watching that person make the shot. I was in Thailand and I was very excited. So I was in Chiang Mai and I had met a girl from Germany on the plane and I was conversing with her. I was like, oh, where are you guys headed? They're like, oh, we're going up to Pai. Pai is about, I think it was about a three hour bus ride. It took me six hours to go there on a scooter. So you could imagine the adventure that I had when I was going up there. And on my way there, I'm going up there. I was kind of very nervous at first because I had to drive out through this industrial area of Chiang Mai and I'm not used to there. You got to drive on the opposite side of the road. So I wasn't 100% comfortable with that yet. And then the trip alone, it took me six hours door to door. If I were to break down at any point on that trip, I. I would not be able to call to have the person pick me up and, you know, cart the scooter back to Chiang Mai. So it was kind of, I wouldn't say risky because I'm sure I would have gotten it some way. But there was a deal, some uncertainty there. While I was on this ride, I was going by, I was driving through and I saw something called Coffee Hill. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. What is that? I pull in and it ends up being a coffee plantation. On this journey, on this road going to Pai, there was this coffee plantation. So I stopped in. I'm like, oh my God, this is amazing. I had a schedule. So I didn't do the tour of the plantation because I figured it would take too long. And I only had literally about a day or like I was going to do one night in Pai. So I said, let me, at the very least, let me just stop, get a bite of food, let me get a cup of coffee. And I pulled in there. I was feeling very optimistic because they had this three groups. I think it was like a two or three group slayer machine, which those are extremely expensive. At least I would, if I had a guess, I would say roughly maybe $20,000. And I see this beautiful like wood paneled machine sitting on their counter. And I'm like, all right, this is going to be good. This is going to be really good. The woman, she know, she takes the. She doses the shot. She puts it in the portafilter, gives it a tamp, puts it in the machine. And if you're familiar with this particular type of machine, it's a paddle system. So a paddle. What that means is there's two points on this particular machine. You put the paddle into the center, that's a pre infusion, which will come out about three bar. Then when you push it all the way over to the left, the pressure ramps up to nine bars. So she's pulling the shot, and I watch her. She puts the paddle over to the center, and she's just waiting there, waiting there, waiting there. And a couple drips go into my cup. And then she puts it back to the off position, then puts it over to the middle pre infusion position again. It starts to drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. And literally she's filling up my shot with drips. I'm waiting for a cappuccino. She's literally dripping out there. I think I timed the shot. I think it was something like three to four minutes. I was like, oh, my God, I was ready to pull my hair out. But then it was also kind of funny. And she redeemed herself because once you. I got a cappuccino, and once you have that much milk in with such a small amount of espresso, in essence, it kind of gets lost. So you're not really tasting the espresso anyways. But she made this beautiful, beautiful rosetta on the cappuccino, which made it worthwhile, I guess. But I totally forgot where I was going with this. Oh, about that third component of what? Like the methodology of the coffee. And I saw that, it literally almost made me cringe. But it wasn't that bad of experience. And then when I was in Vietnam recently, I loved watching people make these egg coffees. Everybody had a different methodology for making this coffee. Different amount of eggs they put in, different amount of sugar, Whether they use sugar or they used the condensed milk. Everyone had this different methodology. And I love seeing how different coffee companies do different things. It's a little bit different than how we do it here in the States. And then the coffee culture we have here in the United States has kind of been exported in the sense that you can get that same preparation. Everywhere I've traveled, they have these third wave coffee shops, and I really don't like visiting those because it seems Very generic. You. Yeah, they could be quite good sometimes. But when people try fitting this mold. So everyone's trying to do this light roast thing which when done right, it could work. When it's done wrong, it completely sucks. And they do this light roast thing and the coffee might come out acid and they're like very. When I say acid, I mean sharp. And they're trying to give you some. Well, you know, it's very, very bright. No, it's not bright. It's sharp and it's accurate. It's not good. But everyone's trying to do this thing. Rather than say, you know, well what works, let's just, let's do what works. Why try to be like everybody else? So we've exported like we have all this. We've exported this coffee culture and it's present in a lot of places. Whenever I go traveling somewhere, I like to experience it the way they traditionally do it in their country. So that is pretty much. That was a quick little rant, a 10 minute rant on coffee and why I enjoy and I always do coffee everywhere I travel. I haven't been to a place yet where I haven't been able to get coffee yet, but I think that might come up in the near future. Yeah, that is it. I hope you enjoyed this little rant. If you guys have any coffee questions at all, if you want me to address any on one of the podcasts, I will do a coffee podcast only and I could address anything you have brewing, drink preparation, whatever it may be. I am one of 287 certified espresso sommeliers, one of 6500 international Q graders. I've done experience in roasting. I've done a bunch of different things. So anything I could do to help shed some light to give you some knowledge to make your morning coffee ritual even better, all you have to do is ask. Thank you guys for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode of One Life. And if you want to follow me, check me out or message me on Instagram. D O N N Y R A U S One word and give me a like and reach out. Connect with me. Hope all is well and I will talk to you soon.