fizzy
A few leaves still in transition? Or is momma nature halted from evergreen leaves staying in full bloom?
I don’t know. I wonder, as I bring my coffee tray outside of the most adorable walk up window and subsequent speak easy space that is Grade Coffee. There’s a breeze rustling leaves about, as the wood between my fingers holds a triangle of an experience.
There is one in the seltzer water, the greatest accompaniment to a shot of espresso and palate cleanser, if you will. I still love bubbles.
There is two in the espresso, a tangerine with shaved almonds in top. sweet yet tart with a schemer of almond paste.
There is three, the milk drink, not a macchiato as most one and ones come as buta cortado Grace tells me, whose proportion is 1:4 ounces milk to coffee.
After a sip of my espresso, I clean my palate and dive into my cortado. It is like soft fluffy pillows, the kind you want to hug and never let go. It tastes like crushed almonds that have become almond powder with taps of cinnamon. I let it rest and then it is like a blueberry compote with an almond crust, the blueberries bursting, running down the side crevice of my mouth. Am I at a summer picnic. Pass a serviette and the ice cream, already.
On this morning, where the fizz of sparkles play in a glass, my mind gets to run and be free, and where my coffee notes are nothing like the ones on its bag – that’s OKAY my new coffee drinkers – I am enjoying the ritual, with a coffee sourced from Kenya, Kathawka from Tandem Coffee Roasters.
Note: Kathawka is in Embu country in Kiambu, Kenya. More than 1000 farmers sell coffee cherry to this factory whose implemented 8 soaking pits where wastewater is filtered naturally to minimize excess runoff to the nearby Kii River.
Coffee needs water. Because this coffee uses a lot of water in its process, I like knowing that buying it means I’m also supporting the conservation efforts of Kathawaka Coffee Factory.