Lessons I Learned from Pour-Over Coffee
When I was 24 I decided I wanted to get into coffee. At that point the only coffee I was drinking was Starbucks peppermint mochas. Usually coffee gave me a rush of caffeine so great I could run a marathon. Not wishing to be constantly pumping with adrenaline, I decided coffee drinking wouldn’t be a day to day activity for me. But then life hit and I realized: I needed coffee.
I decided if I had to drink coffee, I wanted to enjoy it. I went to a co-worker who had a coffee roasting side business and bought a light/medium/dark roast coffee sampler. I told him I didn’t want to buy a coffee maker. What’s the cheapest way I can make coffee? He said pour-over. I bought the pour-over cone, excited that I didn’t have to deal with another appliance in my kitchen. He gave me a video to learn how to brew and I made my first cup of coffee.
Using this method, you could expect a very rewarding cup of coffee. Little did I know that pour-over was the least forgiving way to make coffee. I brewed cup after cup. I didn’t have a gooseneck kettle so getting the steady stream of water took practice. I swirled the grounds. I did the bloom. All words that would’ve been foreign to me in the past. Finally, I drank a cup that didn’t need cream nor sugar. From that day I was hooked on coffee.
I’m no expert at brewing coffee and I never want to be. To become familiar with the subject, I spent 30 minutes reading articles online to give me the base knowledge. Now when I hear people talk about coffee I understand the jargon. When I go searching for new beans to try, those notes of watermelon and caramel on the packaging are telling. Coffee used to be so intimidating, now it’s my dear friend who keeps me company on Monday mornings.
Looking back, would I have bought a coffee maker if my co-worker had said it’s better for a novice coffee drinker? I definitely would’ve given it a second thought. But I had one requirement: I wanted the cheapest method. Limiting yourself as a beginner blocks opportunities to learn something that may actually be manageable.
To understand a new subject, you just need a good knowledge foundation. Surprisingly, that foundation might just take 30 focused minutes of your time.
I was surprised by how quickly a once foreign concept had now become a sustained section of my vocabulary. Once I had the base knowledge, building more knowledge came quickly. Brewing the coffee and picking out beans gave me a visual as I learned more about coffee. In combining different learning methods, I have learned that exploring a new subject doesn’t need to be intimidating. And it also leads to great cups of coffee.
