Main Things That Bind Us Together is an ongoing series on Youth Time that explores ideas and practices that are shared and celebrated all over the world. This week let's talk about coffee.
Ethiopian Coffee
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The first thing I need to do when I arrive in a new country is to seek out the nearest coffee establishment. It doesn’t need to be the hip, cool place that all the locals frequent.
It doesn’t need to have the smoothest dark roast of my life. I simply need a caffeine fix after sitting through a long flight.
Once I am satisfied with my first cup and get some good rest, then I seek out the places the locals like to visit. Coffee is the elixir of life for me. It is one luxury I cannot go a day without having.
Turkish Coffee
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Some might call my obsession an addiction to caffeine, but it is the taste and the unparalleled joy of starting the morning off with the ritual of making a nice, fresh cup of Joe that makes me appreciate this beverage so much. And it seems that the rest of the world tends to share this view.
I’ve enjoyed the strongest coffee of my life with a shot of Espresso in Tuscany, had my future read to me in Istanbul by Turkish coffee grounds, and picked up the habit of putting only cream into my coffee after a weekend in Helsinki.
Because of these experiences I have become intrigued by the way coffee is consumed around the globe.
Legend of discovery of coffee
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The effect coffee has on the brain had been discovered by a group of Monks in Ethiopia. The drink then made its route to the Arabian Peninsula in the 16th century, followed by its introduction to Europe where it was put onto ships headed for the New World.
Since then it has become a staple part of breakfast and socializing in our modern world.
Americano
© www.theclassybarista.wordpress.com
Today, Starbucks is the face of coffee globalization. It has taken over the café world by storm.
Yet variations of it, from Americanos in New York to Egg coffee in Vietnam, are testament to the fact that cultural identity will always be tied to the drink.
Vietnamese Egg Coffee
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Like the other topics in this ongoing series, coffee is appreciated all over the world, but just like music and film; there is no higher echelon towards how it is prepared.
The beauty of coffee is that the various methods towards its preparation have been copied all over the world.
I’ve enjoyed Turkish coffee in Istanbul and in California, and the best Irish coffee I had was in Lithuania.
We all make coffee differently, and we all have our own preference for taste, but we all make it for the end result: stimulation. Coffee makes us more alert and productive in the morning, as caffeine affects the brain in a way that helps wake us from our slumber.
The second most important end result – and this is being entirely subjective – is that it tastes delicious. That to me is the most rewarding aspect.
While I will have coffee differently in each country I go to, I can almost always count on it being there to greet me.
How to compose with coffee grounds, find out here.
For more facts about coffee, here is a fun illustration.
Discover more.
Young South African Creates The Country’s First Black-owned Coffee Brand
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