That First Cup of Coffee in the Morning: A monkey's Ritual

This is a recent article I posted on my other blog, I thought it would make a good first entry into the guide.

Yet another morning has come my way, a little earlier than usual: infants have their way of intervening your well practiced skill of extended sleep. So, up and out of bed I get, and once I've fed and changed the baby, before I do anything else I head to the kitchen and towards the pantry where the bitter gold is kept.

My morning coffee ritual is somewhat different to most people I know. Many simply grab a jar of their favourite instant brand, while others open up a vacuum bag of pre ground coffee beans. At Ward Lodge however, we're dedicated to our coffee. That is not to say we have a plantation in the backyard, though if you saw it (the backyard) you'd never tell either way. No, we have two separate rituals when it comes to preparing our wake up juice. For now, I'll just let you inside my personal ritual.

When I go to the pantry, I grab my jar of Bushells Turkish Coffee. A delicious pulverised coffee of Arabic nature. Next, I stretch down for the container of raw sugar. These items are then placed upon the kitchen bench, while I hunt out my coffee scoup and briki. For reference, a briki is pretty much a milk warmer with a fancy name. Once I've tracked down my two most important utensils (the cup comes later), I scoup up two scoups of coffee and dump it into the briki and follow that up with a single scoup of sugar. Water is poured over the top (approximately enough to fill my Vittoria Coffee thermal mug).

Over to the stove I toddle with my briki in hand. Light the flame (for those of us with gas. If it's an electric stove, then whatever is done to make it hot) and put the briki on the flame (or element). I have a tendency to wander away from the stove for a little too long when I'm doing this, and often have to clean up the spillage, but the idea is to watch for it to start boiling and then remove it from the heat. I boil it three times, as part of my personal ritual. I prefer the flavour of a triple boiled Turkish brew. Once boiled I pour it directly into my cup and allow it to settle and cool enough to begin drinking.

One thing to note about this coffee is the 'mud' or 'sediment' that settles at the bottom of the cup. I'm not a very big fan of this stuff, but I know a couple of people who like to stir it up and drink it. I say very loudly: ICK!

Well, that's my morning coffee ritual.