A full, creative life is supported by rituals that ground us and soothe us. One possibility to add to your list is a morning coffee ritual.
I never drank coffee until my mid-40s, but once I started, I got hooked fast. A cup or two a day soon escalated to thoughtless drinking of a cup of instant coffee whenever I needed a pick-me-up. And the more I drank, the more I seemed to need just one more cup. I soon realized that the instant coffee habit was one I had to break, for both health and ethical reasons, but I just couldn’t stop. I was also on a quest to discover how to make a perfect cup of coffee, and I bought the equipment for both French press and pour-over coffee – but it didn’t soothe me, it didn’t ground me and it didn’t taste that great either. [I’m aware this may be because I didn’t do things exactly right, but in any case, these two methods just weren’t a good fit for me…]
And then – Ta-Da – I got it right almost by fluke, and solved both problems at the same time. What happened? After one numbing lockdown after another, I finally visited Jerusalem, and in the excitement to be there after more than a year, I bought a huge bag of coffee and a Bialetti Moka Pot! Now I HAD to figure this out to make up for the extravagance.
Long story short – I did :)
Step-by-step instructions:
- Fill the heater unit of your coffee maker with just a tad over 200 ml water and put 2 heaping tablespoons coffee in the funnel filter after placing it over the heater unit. Then screw on the top part of the coffee maker.
- Place the coffee maker over medium heat. I adjust my electrical stovetop to 800 watts.
- Once you hear the start of the percolation process, lower the heat to the lowest setting/flame. I lower it to 120 watts and allow the process to continue until you can no longer hear a “hissing” sound, or alternatively, all the liquid is now in the upper part of the coffee maker.
- Take it off the heat at this point, and proceed with heating the milk or water.
- If you want a traditional cappuccino, then pour the required amount of milk into the Finjan. I like a “water-based cappuccino,” meaning a mix of water and milk. I use half water and half oat milk.
When it gets to a rolling boil [I heat it at 800 watts], remove it from the heat and transfer to a milk frother. About 20 pumps later, the milk should be ready.
I use half of the brewed coffee to make my water/milk cappuccino and keep the rest in a jar in the fridge for my second cup of the day.
Voila!
What would I do differently? a) Buy a fair trade blend.
b) Buy the bigger Bialetti Moka Pot, because I think I could brew enough for 2 days and leave it in the fridge without impacting the taste much. And yes, that means you’re cutting out a part of the ritual, but it’s still worth considering.
Unexpected benefits: Since starting this ritual I’m down to two cups of coffee a day.
Future upgrades: turning the ritual into a ceremony by buying the beans, roasting, grinding and then making the coffee…Perhaps. Perhaps not.