Everything that is good in life can be described in one word - delicious.
"That guy is SO delicious", "What a delicious Costa Rica!", "How was everything? - Delicious!"
I get into these funks where I use one word WAY too much. When I was 20, I said "word" after everything. In college, my favorite adjective in college was "uber", and last year everything I thought was worth talking about was categorized as "legit". Nowadays, everything is delicious.
Why delicious? Food, coffee, smoking, a good looking guy, a car or a sweater I want, all are described as delicious for one reason, I am hungry.
The greatest thing about being a barista and being a part of the specialty coffee industry is that there is always something to learn, try, change, make better, debate and essentially do in your own way.
Years ago, when I was first getting into the realm of SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) standards and amazing coffee, I was STARVED for knowledge. Not only was I starved for knowledge, but I was starved for someone to step in and teach me. For the knowledge, I became full quickly, it was a lot to digest, but for the teacher she never came. Now, don't get it twisted, I had a lot of wonderful people in my life that pointed me in the direction for an education on coffee, but mostly they all had opinions that they were portraying as facts. They were putting on a hell of a front too! In the position I am in now, I do my very best to let folk know that what I am teaching them is strictly my opinion and that opinion was gained from experience and experience alone.
Back to being hungry.
Now, especially if you know me, you know that I am WELL fed, and am not malnourished in anyway, especially in the realm of coffee. But it's not about being well fed, or just full enough in my opinion. In coffee, it's like eating chinese food, you're always hungry in a few hours. So, I search, I ask questions, and I encourage the people I work with and my friends and family to seek as well.
In the area of needs being met, I am never going to go hungry; that includes, food, shelter, even most of my "wants" are met; except when it comes to that companion of the opposite sex. Please, don't look at this as a cry for you to set me up with your friends, or introduce me to that other person you know is divorced to see if we have sparks!!!! However, it's been almost 3 years since I've been divorced and my gut is GROWLING for some of that kind of attention!
How do I know that this is just hunger of a want an not a need? - this is how:
Last week over the holiday, I went to Las Vegas. I went by myself and spent the majority of the 4 days I was there solo, and I had a ball! I did everything I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it, of course with my entire home brewing kit with me!
So, the last day I was in Vegas I knew that if I did not get on the road early it was going to take me at least 6 hours vs. the 3.5 hours it usually takes to get home, but I got a case of the "F-it's! I decided instead to sleep in, make myself 3 cups of Brazil Micro-lot (from the Minussi Estate), watch TV (since I don't own one myself), and order in room service! After breakfast and check out, I went to the Bellagio to see the seasonal "Bellagio Gardens". It was magnificent! The only problem with traveling alone is being forced to ask strangers to take your picture, but no problem, everyone I asked politely took the shot and rejoined their families.
While at the Bellagio, I took 2 hours to stroll the gardens, walk through and appreciate a photography exhibit, and attend the Monet gallery. With my coffee by my side, I got lost in the art and beauty of the hotel. On my way out I treated myself to my first taste of gelato, pumpkin-deliciousness!!
I embarked on my journey home to find the expected traffic jam. At that moment I started to reflect on my trip. I had a ball, yes, but there was no one there to witness this fun I was having. Did I need someone to validate my fun? Was I lonely? No, just comparing myself to others, which never ends well.
I stopped at Peggy Sue's 50's diner, and by this time, I was well into self-pity via morbid reflection at that point in the trip. I stopped there because I wanted to see the Diner-saur park that I had seen on my many drives to Las Vegas, plus I had just dressed up as a dinosaur for Halloween! Fun, right?
Yes, it was fun, but I started to see everyone traveling with family or a significant other. They all seemed as though they were enjoying the trip SO much more with someone to enjoy it with. Then, like all good hopeless romantics, I started to think about my ex-husband. The week before Thanksgiving I had found out through the family grapevine that my ex-husband was getting remarried to a 22 year old, that he also knocked up; that they were very much in love and he was elated with the news of being a father.
Walking through Peggy Sue's I began to romanticize the marriage I once had. I thought of how much in love I was, how good he looked, how happy I was, and how much I wanted children. It seemed like a life time ago and in the Brady Bunch section of the gift shop I began to cry quietly to myself.,
Suddenly it hit me and my head started talking to me, "HE would have hated the diner, HE would think it was cheezy and lame, HE hated Las Vegas, HE never would have LET me stop, HE did not appreciate coffee the way I did, and HE was getting what he wanted! I should be happy I dodged the bullet and didn't end up pregnant and 22 in North Carolina! Where would I be then? Still waiting tables at the Cracker Barrel, with 2,3 or 4 kids, broke and working at the local coffee shop... simply for sanity and to not forget the smell of it brewing early in the morning, or what a portafilter smells like after it's been cleaned with puro-caff!" - My mind works quickly like that sometimes, one extreme to the other in under 10 seconds. So I bought a hand dipped malt, chocolate, and walked out of Peggy Sue's go head home.
Immediately after leaving Peggy Sue's, I put on my favorite Old Crow Medicine Show song, and sang at the top of my lungs! I missed the South, but I loved my life! I would not starve myself spiritually to feed another persons needs for completion. At the very moment I started to think of how hungry I was for a delicious man in my life, a shooting star appeared right in front of me! I frantically searched for a wish that was worthy of such a rare sight! - Regardless if it loses it's merit, I will share with my readers that my wish was to stay at my job forever and win the World Barista Cup!!! - I guess I am not as starved for a mate as I thought I was.
If in a frenzy of honesty, wishing upon a star I wished for THAT? Coffee forever? World Champion? - Now, isn't that simply... delicious?
