Sometimes I make premature declarations that come back to bite me in the behind soon enough. C.f. previous post and several others where I wear my contentment with instant coffee almost like a badge of honour. In hindsight- "*sigh*".
Turns out when you're resorting to coffee daily, instead of occasionally, instant gets old, unappetizing and unpleasant fast. Atleast budget instant- your garden variety Bru and Nescafe. For about a month and a half, I also repeatedly ended up with sachets and refill packs of Nescafe that had something seriously wrong with them-one lot was too weak and bland, another lot was grossly bitter and no amount of dairy creamer and even jaggery could cancel that taste. I seriously suspect something went wrong at a plant with a large batch of the stuff, and someone at Quality Control let it pass anyway, either because they didn't have to margin to reject and therefore waste it or, they were absent-minded/preoccupied by Covid things.
In fact, I found myself encountering unexpected changes in taste and flavour in many packaged eatables, and even routine orders from neighbourhood eateries, which was surprising, given that mass market production generally does a good job of standardising taste. This made me wonder-and this is a speculation, ofcourse- if we were basically tasting the shared experience of multiple covid-inflicted anxieties and stresses on those who handled the production, at various points in the production chain. It would only be natural, no?
So yes I started exploring ways in which I could improve my coffee experience at home. And, not coming from a coffee drinking culture, I had neither the home equipment, nor any knowledge-by-osmosis of home-brewed coffee. So into the internet I went, and down the James Hoffmann rabbit-hole I fell. He has a presence on many social media platforms, but, in the the temporary absence of his jimseven.com blog, he is probably best met on his Youtube channel.
And I wasn't the only one- his Youtube subscribers apparently went from 200K something at the beginning of this year to 600K+ after the onset of the pandemic, as more and more people went looking for coffee know-how. This is a remarkable number for someone who doesn't schill stuff on the channel, including his own, and who doesn't badger you to hit 'like' and 'subscribe'. Amongst other things, I'm fascinated by the way he approaches his content and engagement with audience. I think there are many non-coffee lessons in there as well in how to remain true to what you want to do (as opposed to what the algorithms want you to do), and how to resolutely remain kind and maintain an integrity that is frequently the first casualty of social media 'success'.
(I remain in deep admiration, for instance, of the way he does apology. It's an object lesson in how to apologise well- no excuses or explanations, no attempts to defend oneself, and no erasing of whatever it is that he is apologizing for-on the contrary, he leaves the apology note, complete with info on what it is that he was called out for, below the video, in perpetuity. And he corrects course, frequently with an introspective follow-up video. Which is really cool.)
Initially, all I wanted to know was whether to go for a French Press, a South Indian filter coffee bartan or a Moka Pot, but soon I realised just how little I understood or knew about coffee. Or how much work it involved! Coffee is the much, much fussier cousin of tea. A Moka Pot is definitely in my future, when I have time to make the many mistakes that are inevitable with Moka Pots, but for now I'm happy to make the tiny upgrade to Sleepy Owl easy brew bags (and Blue Tokai's easy pour coffee).
I'm very certain that had I not encountered Sensei Hoffmann, I would not have begun my journey in desi coffee, better coffee, and would have continued the fruitless search for 'superior' instant coffee (that's always going to be a dead end no? I mean, now that I know how it's made? Freeze-dried or spray dried, it's basically the equivalent of a bird pre-chewing food before placing it in the baby bird's mouth...). I'm not swearing off chains- my favourite coffee shop is still my favourite coffee shop, for reasons other than the actual coffee. I'm still unlikely to ever become a coffee connoisseur; but I am excited to start turning to and exploring Indian roasteries and local brands for when I do want a coffee.
And I might just have permanently become that person who makes slightly embarrassing noises of pleasure while inhaling the superior aromas now emanating from my writing cup of coffee! 
