MY COFFEE BLESSED JOURNEY: Writing Competition 2023 - Majalah Otten Coffee

Coffee is a magical liquid that changes “stay away from me” to “good morning, honey”

My coffee journey started when I went to college.

I grew up in a province in the southern part of Sumatera where coffee is one of the most well-known plantation products there. But since I was little until high school, I did not really understand what the pleasure of drinking coffee. Even though my late father always served coffee for his breakfast.

After my graduation from high school, I went to college in the capital city of Indonesia and lived with my late grandfather who owned a coffee roaster factory. His factory was in the
middle of a densely populated residential area. The factory had 2 types of machines, old-fashioned manual machine and modern computerize machine. The manual machine had a large cylindrical iron cauldron to put the coffee beans inside and to fry over open flame under supervision, while the computerized machine could operate with minimum human supervision because of automatic monitoring. The later was imported from Brazil.

Every day I would smell the aroma of roasted coffee because we lived in the same location as the coffee roaster factory. From 8 AM to 5 PM, from Monday to Saturday, there were always some workers working in the factory. After the roasted coffee cooled, they put them in to 50 kg sacks to be sold to the traders in traditional markets around Jabodetabek area.

The strange thing is that despite of smelling the aroma of freshly roasted coffee daily and participating occasionally in conversations with coffee brokers who came to offer raw coffee
beans, I was not interested in coffee still. Even at my grandfather’s house, where ground coffee was available in various types and qualities, I did not like the taste and yet not a coffee
lover.

After graduating from college, I worked and lived in a boarding house near office. At that time, I just tried to drink coffee again. It happened when my colleague sometimes asked me to have breakfast with him at coffee shop on the ground floor of office building where we worked. Ever since, I finally started to enjoy coffee. But the frequency of drinking coffee only occurred about 1-3 times a month and the coffee must be mixed with milk and a little sugar. I still could not enjoy black coffee.

Time flies and slowly, breakfast with coffee becomes my routine. Starting from coffee with milk and sugar, I switched to black coffee without sugar because it is healthier. I finally can enjoy black coffee. Pure coffee allows me to feel the original aroma, taste and after taste of the coffee. And it becomes almost my daily habit.

Every time I travel out of town or abroad, I always include a visit to recommended local coffee shop into my itinerary. In my opinion, enjoying a cup of coffee finally has become a lifestyle and a coffee shop becomes a pleasant venue to relax and to meet up with friends. From the routine of enjoying coffee alone, now I make friends with some baristas.

This is my coffee journey story that started 10 years ago and it is still going on strong today. How about you?

[Artikel Nominasi Kopi Fest Indonesia Writing Competition 2023]