Coffee First
No Dabs, 5/3/23
The long light days are here. More time to pass in the saddle. More light to stay outside. How wonderful it is to get out of work and head to the trail knowing you can get in more than an hour’s ride and that you’ll experience the golden hour!
But first, to fuel the work day or when planning to ride several hours on a weekend long-distance outing, there’s coffee:
Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee, with a beautiful legend of its origin. What seems like too long ago now, I had the privilege of living/working there, gaining insight into the wondrous bean that made goats dance and the shepherd say, huh?…maybe I should consume what they did.
Dancing goats. What more does one need to put a smile on their face?
Whether it’s stoking the previous nights ashes in the campfire ring, coaxing them into a flame that licks around newly-added sticks and twigs, with a cup of java in hand, or stopping by the coffee shack drive thru, coffee often gets us ready to roll as the sun rises in the sky.
Spike the blood with “buna.”
Mid-ride coffee stop? Yep. Coffee in the car for a quick slug before heading out on another lap? Yep. Coffee in a water bottle? Yep. Coffee truck at a trail head? Yep. Pulling out the camp stove while bikepacking and stirring up the very delightful instant coffees available these days? Yep.
Coffee has long been a part of mountain biking culture. I’m grateful. Thankful, too, which is different. Thank you, Ethiopia, for discovering what coffee has become and sharing it with the rest of us. Grateful, I am, when I experience it.
Cheers, y’all, to coffee … and peace out.
Makes fantastic brew. What is your favorite method?
I switched to the inverted, I like it.
Can't argue with that :)
I recently discovered the Aero press. Made in USA (by the guys that used to make the aerobee Frisbee!). Much better cup a joe then the drip machine.