I hemmed, and I hawed. I peered at the little laminated cards typed in a retro font. Hmm... "milk chocolate, allspice, and dried fruit"? Or maybe "complex ... notes of lemon peel ... orchid aroma." Do I want a sweet finish? Or would I rather something full of body, and herbal? And what the heck do orchids taste like?
Turns out, I love the way orchids taste. And the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe is now tops on my list. No longer do I roll my eyes when a customer quibbles between Latin American and Indonesian beans: I know that anything from the Sidamo region is sweet, light, complex, a delightful drink for summer, and the coffee from Guatemala has a cinnamony richness that's perfect for a rainy fall day.
Pooh-poohing chardonnay and preferring zinfandel over syrah is so late 90s. Today's hip imbibers are tasting coffee, not wine, and discovering a whole new palate. Tropical fruits. Jasmine. Apricot. Dark cherries. Lemongrass. Chocolate, toffee, spice of every sort. Coffee that tastes like strawberries? Until you've discovered the many notes of a truly great café, please put your "Gourmet" badge back on the rack. Coffee is the new tasting ... what's in your cup?
We think that a heartfelt, hand-written thank you note or letter never goes out of style. What better way to show someone how much they mean to you than stopping to take the time to write to them with pen and paper in today's fast-paced, e-mail/Twitter/Facebook driven world? Fortunately there are those out there who agree with us, like Tanea Smith, the owner & creative director of a chic paper goods company called She's Got Papers.
