The Coffee Siren

After having a couple of bad nights sleep after some interesting and rather exciting possibilities about the future were run past me, I slept the sleep of the dead last night. Stephen knowing all this did not put the alarm clock on at bedtime and I slept right through from 10pm until 7.30am this morning. Steve had got up by then and let Miss Birdy out of her overnight quarters. So, it was she who woke me mee-ooing in my face and walking all over me.

After our wake-up coffee, we dressed in some comfortable clothes and followed several of the Qigong sessions that we enjoy and find on YouTube. After that, an hour and a half later, we were set to go upstairs to a turbo session in our little box room. Steve didn’t change clothes saying that he would see me in the turbo room. I did a couple of other tidying things that took a few moments and when I got up there dressed in ‘at home’ bike kit, I saw that he had not made my second coffee and seeing my expression as I turned to go back into the kitchen, he said, “I wouldn’t dare try to make your coffee, you know I wouldn’t do it to your standards”.

Well actually we both have standard for our coffee!

I usually make his first coffee while he catches the news. The first one is a short black, one full press and a half presses of his Nespresso machine. I make the little mat that I place under it out of kitchen towel (one sheet makes six little mats). This is folded and placed under the cup on a bone china saucer. He doesn’t like the saucer to have drips on it.  I carry this in carefully, placing it on a side table and saying “Your coffee my lord”.

My coffee is always the same. One heaped large tea spoonful of Clipper Organic Latin American coffee. To this I add a heaped tea spoon of coffee mate. Then a level teaspoon of Manuka Honey before pouring the (just before boiling point) hot water on. It is then stirred vigorously, 20 x one way, 20 x the opposite way, 10 times the other way again and turn for 10 times more. I cool it slightly with a little semi skimmed milk, just a dash. Now what is so hard about that?

Stephens second and any subsequent coffees require two level teaspoons of cream in the cup before putting under the Nespresso. One full press whilst I stir the cream thoroughly in with the coffee. Then one more full press. Finally having made a light foam on the top with the stirring, I add a half a coffee spoonful of hot chocolate powder to a fine tea strainer and tap lightly until the top of the coffee is covered with no mess around the rim.

We both limit our coffee consumption these days to three cups per day most of the time. We did give up coffee altogether for a couple of years about a decade ago, but then all bike rides started to go to a Starbucks outlet, Chichester, Horsham, Hove or Brighton, where we would order a black tea or mineral water and stay in the store to inhale the coffee aroma as long as was not too embarrassing. Before making the return journey home. We are very strict with the coffee now and as you can see here need to have the few cups we take, made absolutely perfectly to our individual tastes.