My Coffee

13 September 2022

I make my coffee inside before walking outside.

I set the cup on the wall, outside my office, and begin rolling my cigarette. I have just tidied my desk and would like it to remain free of tobacco crumbs for an afternoon at the bare minimum.

It’s cold and cloudy and I dislike it.

Rain is spitting in my coffee. I know this is the case as I can feel the raindrops on my arms and, as it often does, rain is falling over a larger surface area, not just the half a square metre my body occupies. I can also see dark circles in my mug, where the rain has penetrated the top layer of golden coffee foam, therefore affirming what I had already deducted from the sensation on my arms.

My coffee is becoming diluted. Not only is it becoming diluted it is also becoming cold, so I begin drinking. After a sip I sit it back down on the wall and notice the dark holes in the foam have disappeared. This is because, when I picked up the mug, the foam resettled, leaving no trace of the dilution process it was currently undergoing.

But after a drag or two of my cigarette, my mouth tasted awful as tobacco is not only bad for you, but it also tastes really bad, so my first and only thought is to take another swig of my coffee/precipitation mixture. The holes were back. There were more of them this time.

As I took my second sip, I wondered if the settling of the foam was a habit coffee, in general, has or if it was something, this specific cup of coffee did as a one-time thing, perhaps to cheer me up.

Much to my disappointment, all the foam had gone by the second sip, so there was no way of telling.

I finished my coffee in the third sip*. It was the worst sip of all. Then I went back inside and wrote this.

*Some of you may assume that due to the small number I sips I finished my coffee in that I am a glutton or some kind of professional coffee drinker, that goes to town fetes and drinks massive cups of coffee in huge gulps while onlookers watch, amazed. I am neither of these things, it was a double espresso, so three sips are the appropriate amount.