THE AROMA LAB. (Part 1)
On Monday morning my grandmother wakes up after dawn is dead. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she will still do the same. Even on a Sunday! Why would she wake up early yet she has no one to educate or feed? She is a sexagenarian. So, her children need to pay ‘being brought up taxes’.
It’s not expensive really, so long as they buy her milk and tea leaves, she will keep smiling for a billion years.
My grandmother makes some seriously thin tea, it’s as if the milk is used for coloration. That weird moment when she offers you tea and you put on a tight lipped smile with a lot of chest pains as you gaze at the huge size of the mug! Then you remember she doesn’t take sugar in her tea and she didn’t even bother to buy some for her visitors. Heck! the sipping journey lasts miles yonder.
Granny makes a lot of tea, what? She guzzles two thermoses of that thinness an entire day. Even if you give her more milk, she will still pull a more elaborate thin one as if to teach you a lesson.
I know how she makes her tea. She will mix gallons of water with just some droplets of milk and place the concoction on the burner. These days, Granny rarely uses firewood, times have changed I tell you.
Just near boiling, she will scoop a serious handful of tea leaves and add into the sufuria, then, she will bring the whole mixture into a two-minute boiling time. When it’s served, I actually never know whether it’s the bitter taste or the non-existent taste of milk that gives me an eye popping face.
She makes tea in the same way her parents taught her I tend to think. Her children also make tea the way she taught them only that this time, they use more milk. That more milk tends to dilute the bitterness is no brainer.
Technology might have brought changes to the method of making tea, but the process has refused to grow up or people have vowed to remain timid to change. Is tea supposed to be boiled or brewed? You just tell me.
In improvising we bring the same process of making tea to coffee then the narrative has it that coffee is bitter. But, its time the lion learnt how to write, the hunter cannot always be praised even when he is cowardly.
If you identify coffee with bitterness, there is a problem. If you view coffee time as a chance to indulge in sugar, you might as well eat it raw. 10 spoonsful of sugar in a single cup under the pretext of coffee is an insult to the gods.
Bitterness is not a taste rather a result of bad process of making your coffee. Also, a pattern decorated coffee drink in a café is not prove of the awesomeness of a coffee drink but mostly simple gimmicks to play with your mind. What matters most is; how you prepare your coffee at home and in the case of a café, how they bring the right components together in making a drink.
When at home, you might not have knowledge on coffee brewing so in order to graduate to brewing, at least take your instant coffee in a civilised manner.
Bring your water to boil and turn off the burner, then add your Nescafé and stir, if you boil it together with the water, you are burning your coffee and it will be bitter as the taste of hell. Then, and this I implore veins pooping off my face; sugar is your enemy now and forever thank me when you are seventy-five.
Use one or two spoonsful of sugar maximum. You will not only be saving your teeth but also preparing your taste buds to adapt to the richness and aroma in coffee. This is the only way you will be able to enjoy what Java offers.
Come to Kahawa Number one. Damn! I won’t comment on that coffee. Why are you buying it? Okay, if you like it so much, let me say something on it since this is not my blog and the owner gave very specific instructions.
Bring your water to boiling, turn off the burner. Scoop two spoonsful of coffee per cup. If you are making ten cups, twenty spoonful’s of kahawa number 1! Add to the already 100 degrees’ hot water, Stir and let it brew for 5 minutes while the lid is on. The aroma will be heavenly, chapatti and eggs goodness. Sieve this Ethiopian Drink and serve, remember your Nduma on the side or Ugali. Ha ha, Ugali and coffee are sweetie for someone I know.
The two brewing methods of both instant and ground coffee are standard for all the other top tire coffees. But don’t you think a top tire coffee deserves to be brewed differently than a Nescafe or Kahawa Number 1? More on this ill fill you in later.
How else would you know that a coffee drink can taste crispy or lemony, or chocolatey? Why is it that Kenyan grown Coffee is known as Gourmet or rather speciality Coffee? Why are Europeans so gaga about Kenyan Roast coffee beans? Well, you have never tasted coffee from your own country Kenya have you?
Guess why! On the one hand, Nescafe is coffee grown in other countries so your chance at tasting Kenyan coffee is blocked. On the other hand, Kahawa Number 1 is the last tier quality coffee, so If you love it, just Imagine which planet you would find yourself in, if you moved up the ladder to top tier coffees? Don’t you worry, I got you.
Till we meet again, I am the coffee lover cum Coffee enthusiast @nairobicaffeine on twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Or my Aroma Lab www.nairobicaffeine.com
Hey. “If you make me coffee in the morning, ill love you forever, or at least until the coffee is gone”. Have a caffeinated Week!
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