My Morning Cup

I’m always amazed at how good coffee tastes first thing in the morning. My equipment isn’t top of the line (Virtuoso grinder, french press, pot on the stove) and yet, somehow, every cup still seems to taste amazing. Lindsay and I discussed this, and her opinion was that since your palate is fresh, and non fatigued, sure, the coffee would taste great. This makes sense – if I have a second cup, it’s usually not quite as good as the first.  However, I can’t believe that my technique is so flawless that pretty much every press produces a great cup. When I’ve tried to make presses at the cafe, with far better equipment and control, I’ve had a hard time reproducing my level of success at home. I’ve read a couple of papers that found links between the environment and taste, and my guess is that environment is probably at least partially responsible for the differences. In the cafe, you’re constantly on the alert for customers, or things that need to be done. It’s not exactly conducive to completely focusing on tasting coffees, whereas at home, I can give the coffee that level of focus.

Or perhaps I’m the only one who has experienced this phenomenon.

Matthew