Of Friends and Coffee

Have you ever thought about all the similarities between coffee and friendships?

• Warm
• Comforting
• Stimulating
• Refreshing
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...please add your own ideas. I left room for you...

Quality Coffee, Quality Friends

Quality Coffee begins with a good beans.  You can't make a quality product, if the base material is lacking.  This is true in every area of life.  Quality quilts are not made with Wal-Mart fabric and ratty thread.  Quality flooring is not made from oil.  While the quilt you make from Wal-Mart fabric may be fine, it probably won't last long enough to become an heirloom, and synthetic flooring will never be lovingly lifted from one home, transported across country and relaid in another home like hard wood flooring or a 80 year old wool carpet would.

The same is true with friends.  The type of person they are matters.  Choose wisely.

The next factor in good coffee is the roasting process.  It doesn't matter how good the beans are to begin with, if they are poorly roasted, the final product won't taste very good.

If you are a coffee snob, like me, then you know what type of roast you prefer, and what companies do the best job.  My favorite coffee comes from a little shop referred to locally as Jack's, because Jack owns it.  It is located in an old house.  When you walk in the brightly painted front door you are greeted with the smell of fresh coffee, his two large dogs and conversation.  Sitting on burlap bags of green bean you will find customers chatting.   The roaster sits in an open area where one can watch the beans turn a shiny black and hear the popping sound as they reach perfection.

This is such a contrast to the stories I have heard about how Folgers coffee is roasted -- in old tires, along the edge of the paved roads in Ecuador, stirred by young boys with hoes who walk barefoot up and down in the heat. No wonder there is a taste difference!

Now to friends... think about it... If someone is 'green', what can one do with them?  How many of your close friends lack experience, have never suffered loss or down times?  It takes the hard times to find out what a person is really made from.  Do they stand up to the heat, or do they flake out?

"Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!"  --Eleanor Roosevelt

My closest friends have a wide range of experiences.  They have been through different things, they have lived different lives and they have made different choices -- all of which I can learn from.

Next, in good coffee, comes the brewing process.  Today, most of us just dump some grounds in a filter, fill the reservoir and push the button, all with our eyes half closed and our brains still in sleep mode, but have you ever had coffee made on a wood cook stove or over a campfire?  Slowly brewed to perfection?

There is an art in it.  The following recipe comes from The Original Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book, which begins with instructions on how to properly operate your wood cook stove.

Boiled Coffee

• 1 cup coffee grounds
• 1 egg
• 1 cup cup boiling water
• 6 cups boiling water

Scald a granite-ware coffee-pot.  Wash egg, break and beat slightly.  Dilute with one-half the cold water, add crushed shell, and mix with coffee.  Turn into the coffee-pot, pour on boiling water and stir thoroughly.  Place on the front of range, and boil three minutes.  If not boiled, coffee is cloudy; if boiled too long, too much tannic acid is developed.  The spout of the pot should be covered or stuffed with soft paper to prevent escape of fragrant aroma.  Stir and pour some in a cup to be sure that spout is free from grounds.  Return to coffee-pot and repeat.  Add remaining cold water, which perfects clearing.  Cold water, being heavier than hot water sinks to the bottom, carrying grounds with it.  Place on back of the range for ten minutes, where coffee will not boil.  Serve at once.  If any is left over, drain from grounds and reserve for making of jelly or other dessert.

Do you see how even the process of making good coffee is much like how lasting friendships develop?   It starts with mixing the ingredients.  Then things are hot for a while!  It is fun.  Exciting. (boiling)  But then it takes work.  (clearing the spout) and finally, there is that long wait on the back burner, before it can be served.

Personally, I would like it if friendships could always be at the boiling stage, but then one could never really enjoy the full strength of the it.  I hate the stirring and pouring parts -- change scares me, and being put on the back burner or putting someone on the back burner is never fun... but it is needed for that perfect flavor.

Of course, there was the guy who told me, "I like my friends like I like my coffee. Ground and in the freeze." Gosh -- I sure hope he was joking!