ZenLinux Blog

I have the misfortune of living in a town where there are no good coffee houses. In fact, there are no coffee houses at all (although we have four Dunkin Donuts and a couple of drive-through coffee kiosks – bleh). A Starbucks appeared for a year but ended up being the only Starbucks in New Hampshire to be closed down during their recent company reorganization. This didn’t surprise me, because every time I went in there I never saw more than a few customers at a time.

For a while I’ve coped with this situation by enjoying fine teas. The simplicity of preparing tea is wonderful – pretty much all you have to worry about is the temperature of the water and steeping time. Cleanup only takes an extra minute or two.

Lately, though, my interest in tea has waned and my attention has turned back to good coffee. So I pulled out my grinder and french press and have been enjoying coffee. The thing about making a good cup of pressed coffee is that you have to become pretty obsessive about the process. Now I spend nearly as much time cleaning my grinder and press pot as I do enjoying the results.

Is it worth it? Certainly for the time being. And when I head to the Pacific Northwest next month I can compare my results with some of the masters.