It was a Friday morning a couple of weeks ago people are arriving at work, logging in to their computers etc and some how the gist turns to urban legends and my colleague describes a very strange coffee bean preparation process involving the digestive tract of a monkey! What!? All it took was two words in Google (Monkey Coffee) and urban legend became fact with some modification, the monkey is actually a palm civet. I am so behind times on this one, among the links that came up on Google was one to an article saying Oprah had hosted a tasting of this very esoteric coffee like 3 years ago. After much discussion and involuntary shudders, my boss whips out his credit card and declares that a tasting is in order and this purchase qualifies as a company expense. I believe all things should be tried once and only once, so I am definitely game for a tasting. Some things should be tried several times in different positions but I digress. Like joke like joke my pipo order a sample from a company online somewhere in Asia. We soon ease into the days work (the credit card does have to be paid off at the end of the month) and by end of day I had promptly forgotten all about Kopi Luwak. Then it arrived yesterday vacuum sealed straight from Indonesia. It was not a small ceremony this morning o, brewing the coffee. Finally it was time to taste it. I must say I was disappointed. I do like coffee, I cannot claim to be an aficionado or anything but the aroma of this particular coffee was like practically non existent (I had to stick my nose in the cup to catch a whiff of it) and it tasted like ... Nescafe! Could this be a case of too many cooks (in this case 4) spoiling the broth? Abi na 'normal' (but very high priced) coffee beans wey we buy? Who knows. We still have some beans left over and we have decided to reconvene on Monday for another tasting, lets see if I will have a different opinion then.
Photo Courtesy of animalcoffee.com
So I march into the deli determined to get his name. He is not there! The other guy takes my order and as he puts the bread in the toaster he appears. I say hello, he smiles with his twinkling eyes. I lower my eyes to hide the dissapointment I am feeling at the fact that he isn't making my lunch. The guy asks 'mayo and mustard?' 'Just mayo please extra extra easy' I reply dragging my eyes from the bag of chips I had been furiously concentrating on. I hear him mumur something in spanish as he shoos the guy away and takes over. Damn you mochafella! I can feel a stupid smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. Once again he turns over my lovingly prepared lunch with a twinkle in his eye, a smile on his lips and an admonission to have a nice weekend. I smile my thanks and added a 'right back atcha' as I move over to the cashier to pay. I exit the deli and I still don't know if his name is Eduardo or Juan.
Lunch for me is usually either pasta or homemade chinese (from home) or a turkey on wholewheat from the deli downstairs. I don't bring Nija stuff from home because I don't know if I can handle anybody squeezing their nose and asking me 'what is that?' in the lunch room. I fit commit murder! For like two weeks now I have been frequenting the deli (been too lazy to pack lunch) and although they have a huge variety of sandwiches I always order the same thing; turkey on toasted wholewheat with fruits on the side. I noticed that on Monday by the time it was my turn to order my sandwich was already half way through being prepared. On Tuesday I noticed that as I walked in the ... cook? who served me the day before reached for the wholewheat loaf and put 3 slices in the toaster. I decided not to say anything. I walked up and waited in front of the counter. 4 mins later he placed my sandwich on the shelf in front of me with a twinkle in his eye. I flashed him a 5000 megawatt smile and moved on to the cash register. Yesterday as I walked up, my usual ... sandwich maker? was serving someone else but he put his collegue through making my sandwich - extra extra easy on the mayo, no mustard, no pickles. I flashed him another megawatt smile still a twinkle no smile in response hmm ... Today my collegue brought bagels for breakfast so I was feeling perhaps I would just skip lunch then my yeye belly started growling like 20 mins ago so it was off to the deli. As usual my sandwich was 'lovingly' prepared and when I smiled my thanks I got a smile in return! I was so suprised by the smile I forgot to follow through with my initial plan to ask my personal sandwich maker his name! A well there is tomorrow!
It was a Friday morning a couple of weeks ago people are arriving at work, logging in to their computers etc and some how the gist turns to urban legends and my colleague describes a very strange coffee bean preparation process involving the digestive tract of a monkey! What!? All it took was two words in Google (Monkey Coffee) and urban legend became fact with some modification, the monkey is actually a palm civet. I am so behind times on this one, among the links that came up on Google was one to an article saying Oprah had hosted a tasting of this very esoteric coffee like 3 years ago. After much discussion and involuntary shudders, my boss whips out his credit card and declares that a tasting is in order and this purchase qualifies as a company expense. I believe all things should be tried once and only once, so I am definitely game for a tasting. Some things should be tried several times in different positions but I digress. Like joke like joke my pipo order a sample from a company online somewhere in Asia. We soon ease into the days work (the credit card does have to be paid off at the end of the month) and by end of day I had promptly forgotten all about Kopi Luwak. Then it arrived yesterday vacuum sealed straight from Indonesia. It was not a small ceremony this morning o, brewing the coffee. Finally it was time to taste it. I must say I was disappointed. I do like coffee, I cannot claim to be an aficionado or anything but the aroma of this particular coffee was like practically non existent (I had to stick my nose in the cup to catch a whiff of it) and it tasted like ... Nescafe! Could this be a case of too many cooks (in this case 4) spoiling the broth? Abi na 'normal' (but very high priced) coffee beans wey we buy? Who knows. We still have some beans left over and we have decided to reconvene on Monday for another tasting, lets see if I will have a different opinion then.