Stop and Smell the Coffee
Coffee should be more than the morning drug or to gulp as you run out the door, briefcase in one hand and travel mug in the other. From its very beginnings as a beverage, coffee brought people together in the coffee houses in Vienna, Paris, London, and other great cities of the world. Friends, acquaintances, and conspirators alike gathered over cups of coffee to share, joke, enjoy each others company, and conspire. Here are a few tips that might help you enjoy your coffee more, some social and some not:

• A few quiet minutes in the morning can improve your attitude for the rest of the day. Sit and relax, even if just for a five minutes before you rush off into your hectic schedule. If you don’t have those few minutes, maybe it’s time to examine your morning schedule. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, “Ten minutes earlier to bed, and ten minutes earlier rise time,” may be all that you need.

• Talk for a few minutes with your loved ones over a cup. Allow the coffee to cool just a bit. Why? A cooler cup of coffee should taste better than when it comes right out of the brewing device. Your taking the time to sit, talk, and enjoy will make your coffee taste better by allowing it to cool. If the taste doesn’t improve it is time to investigate your brewing methods or even the coffee you are using.

• Some calming music, playing softly in the background will help. Subdued lighting as well. We are not trying to put you to sleep, but a calming environment will allow you to concentrate on your coffee and think about the flavor.

• Learning to taste coffee is a skill worth developing. To begin, try concentrating on what it tastes like when it first enters your mouth, as it passes over and around the tongue, as you are swallowing, and the first ten or fifteen seconds after you swallow. Good coffee goes through a whole set of flavor changes through this process.

• Chew your food. One of the tips I give friends when they come to sample my coffee is to eat it- not just drink it. Take a small sip and chew it a bit. This forces you to move the coffee around in your mouth and also extends the time the coffee is on your taste buds.

• Don’t brush your teeth before coffee time. Toothpaste will change they way your palate senses the coffee. Brushing after coffee may also may help prevent dental staining as well as help fight coffee breath when you head out of the door.

• Don’t use a travel mug. As with all foods, aroma is a huge part of the enjoyment and taste of food. Use a coffee cup with a large enough top circumference that allows you to get you nose closer to the coffee and take a “whiff” of the beverage before drinking. Scotch and wine sampling glasses are designed to do much the same thing and for exactly the same reasons.
It is stressful being part of the ever-increasing pace of today’s hectic Western society. Faster internet speeds, faster cars and transport systems, constant calls and test messages on a smart phone, the traffic of the morning commute, and more distractions than ever before all seem designed to raise ones blood pressure. It becomes more and more important to take the time to stop and smell the flowers.. and the coffee.