Coffee just doesn’t taste the same anymore

WE HAVE developed sophisticated ways of preserving sounds (the voice of Luciano Pavarotti will ring out around the world for many more decades) and modern photography has made it easy to preserve scenes and faces, but as far as I know there are still no reliable ways of preserving flavours.

I remember the delight of drinking smoky, rich coffee brewed over a campfire as a teenager, but I wonder what it really tasted like. Was it as great as I remember it to be? Actually, I doubt it.

I think the secret we shared was to drop a glowing coal from the fire into the coffee pot to make the grounds sink to the bottom.

I have recently been trying to brew myself a perfect cup of coffee and I’m nowhere close so far. Even though I use the best coffee beans I can afford, and brew them in a pretty good plunger pot, the result is rather disappointing.

I have tried the coffee from several of my friends’ kitchens and only one meets my expectations and that comes from a highly sophisticated coffee machine that’s more like a computer than a kettle.

I sometimes pop in to a coffee shop in Noordhoek that produces excellent coffee but it comes from an espresso machine almost as big as a family car and probably as expensive.

Am I imagining this, or has it become incredibly expensive to produce decent coffee?

When I lived in Bloemfontein many years ago we used a simple little muslin bag fixed on a wire loop, filled it with fresh coffee grounds and suspended it in a pot of hot water for a while.

I seem to remember the result was delicious, although the equipment cost almost nothing. I refuse to use one of those disposable coffee pod machines as I have a horror of drowning the planet is used aluminium pods. It’s bad enough that we have coated the entire world in disposable nappies and plastic bags. It would be crass to add a layer of little aluminium cups to the mess.

It’s almost enough to make me resort to drinking tea.

All a tea drinker needs is a tea bag and a mug of hot water. There’s no electronic machinery involved (well, not yet, as far as I know).

Maybe it’s all about the water. Is our city water (what’s left of it) so packed with disinfectant chemicals that the coffee tastes foul?

I am about to head off to the Karoo for a few days, where I look forward to languishing in a deep, steamy, hot bath right up to my chin – something I have not done for months.

I shall also take particular note of the flavour of the coffee.

Maybe I’ll come home with a few litres of Karoo borehole water for my next few cups of coffee.

Last Laugh

The judge glared at the accused and said: “You admit you broke into that dress shop in Main Road?” “Yes, your honour.” “Why did you do it?” “Because my wife wanted a new dress, your honour.”

The judge looked at the case docket and said: “But it says here you broke into the same shop on three consecutive nights. How do you account for that?”

“She sent me back twice to exchange it, your honour.”