Little Rant...

[michel]

Just take a look at this:

http://www.whiskymag.com/magazine/issue ... _cold.html

They promess you a preview about some Coffee-Whisky related 'whatever'... (and it's no secret I love both) So being interested and reading this... I got shit! (forgive me my language). They don't even give you a preview... Just waffling and introducing... and waffling again... I don't call this a preview! These are just the first paragraphs of an article. Suppose you watch a preview about a film... and they show you only the beginning of the film, with all the names of actors rolling over your screen... You would be dissapointed? Would you?

Sorry for this not really related rant... but I'm in a kind of 'angry' mood. Pissed about all the crap people are writing about anything. Whatever you search for on internet, or even in most books, is just monkey-talk. Everybody repeats what has been said thousands times before... No originality, almost nowhere a really interesting new thought, or concept, or whatever which will surprise me!
To go on for just a few more minutes, and make this rant a bit more coffee-related: Why is it that to whatever coffee-forum you go... the same questions are asked, and the same answers are given... Why is it that there seems to be a concensus about what people like and do not-like... Why? When you closely examine leaves, you'll see no leave is the same. The same with birds, dogs, clouds, grains of sand, or whatever...
It seems nature doesn't use a model!
All dogs are different, bark in their own way... Then why are we humans agreeing so often? It's impossible to like what someone else likes in the same way... Is it our minds? Our thinking and analysing capacities which 'calculate' the perfect MODEL (read: a coffeeblend, or the perfect grinder/machine/roaster/best way to prepare a coffee/best way to roast the beans... aso)? And is it just the consequense of this 'mind'-living, that we think that we like that MODEL best? (to say it in other words: we all bark the same song... because we THINK it's a good song... while if we stopped THINKING and just would let our 'nature/origine' bark, we would get a totally different barking? Wouldn't we?)

I didn't want to bark at anybody in particulary... so please forgive me, and remember: I haven't spoken a word in my life which was my own. And I mean this really seriously. I am a collection of thoughts/concepts/reactions a.s.o. which are put in me by my parents, my schoolteachers/professors, my friends a.s.o... Only the collection as a whole has some sort of uniqueness... but what comes out of my mouth are sort of pre-fixed sentences/answers(when somebody asks me something) and even my feelings are put in this body by 'the world'. So nothing original in me either! I can predict myselve, as I can predict others...

Why do millions and millions of people drink coffee? Because they like it? I don't think so. The body protests against the intake of coffee, alcohol, sigarettes a.s.o. It's resistance will fade to the background though, because our 'mind' is learning to like it... and we think it's nice and enjoyable, because everybody else seems to like it! It's a matter of culture, not of really liking! When you listen to Indian music for example... Do you - as a westerner - like it? Of course not! The stuff drives you crazy! Millions of other people like it though... (or better said: learnt to like it...).

I feel my angry-mood is fading away... Sometimes it's good to write things down (again a statement which is not my own...)

So let me conlude with the following assignment: Whenever you read a post written by me, which is phony, and thus completely irrelevant because what I write is said before by others and is in fact a cliché and public property which I 'thought' was my own... Please let me know! There is no point anymore for me to repeat what is said about coffee by others...
So from now on, I'll try to contribute as many as possible posts with a minimum of common-places!

To begin with one:
'I've moved my Giotto from my home to my work. My father who also uses Giotto now (as we are working together), likes to put 'Senseo-pads' in the machine...' I thought it was disgusting... and after tasting: I still do, although the stale-DE-coffee taste better out of Giotto than out of the Senseo-crema machine... So my first, really 'subjective' coffee-related-advice would be: If you happen to have an espressomachine and an Senseo-crema... try the pads in the espressomachine... and if you like it: get rid of that Senseo-alien!'

Michel

[Steve]

LOL so true DAM I'm agreeing now as well

[Joey]

Hmmm, mentioning the dogs who bark i n different ways....well, they do, but they are still animals living in a pack. They also have a certain "crowd behavior" to survive or get what they want. If they don't adapt, they become outsiders, what they don't want because it's easier to live in a pack then alone.
Humans are pack-people, too. They have their own way of "pleasing" each other to get what they want....
Dogs bow and scrape too much for my taste, but they are domesticated since 15 000 years, and they survived well - who knows how many dogs would have survivd in the dissapearing nature if they wouldn't have become mens best friend...
Sorry, now I'm drifting apart - but the point is - you are right, many people don't like coffee but still drink it to be ... accepted in the community? Good, that makes me earn my money in the future - let them come ;-D
But it's a bad thing with drugs, though....
I have to admit I tried to smoke when i was 20 just because I wanted to be cool when going out - I quit after several weeks because I didn't like the taste and the thought of that dirt sticking in my lung afterwards. (Disgusting thought that my lung is a sponge not able to be washed....) Anyway - I was selfconfident enough to say "hey, I don't need to do it for other people if I don't like it!
And I think that is my point here - all children and youngsters should be educated with more selfconfidence, so that they are able to take responsibility for their decisions and don't feel as an outsider in the clique if they are the only one to say "no" to something....
That will make them write better and different articles in their future-jobs as journalists, writers...because they dare to have a different opinion then the pack

Wow, you infected me with these thoughts - I have to stop before I get depressed...

Should I push the submit button? h well, who does it hurt, venting helps....

joey

[michel]

Yesterday I wrote:
‘Is it our minds? Our thinking and analysing capacities which 'calculate' the perfect MODEL (read: a coffeeblend, or the perfect grinder/machine/roaster/best way to prepare a coffee/best way to roast the beans... aso)? And is it just the consequense of this 'mind'-living, that we think that we like that MODEL best?’

Sorry, but I feel the urge to add something to that:

There is a body! A verry ‘intelligent’ body, which can cure itself of dis-eases. A body with senses, which can see, hear, feel, taste and smell. A body which can act and communicate. Furthermore there is a brain, which can interpret whatever the senses come up with. The brain has two sorts of thoughts: ‘natural thoughts’: I have to grind the beans first, and then hit the brew switch… and ‘unnatural thoughts’: What might Jane think when I do this or that?
The body (programmed through million years of evolution) is only interested in two things: to survive and to fuck. To survive in the best way, it wants to sleep when it’s tired, it wants to eat when its hungry, and it will fuck whenever it feels the urge too.

What makes our lifes interesting and complicating (and controllable - as we don’t jump on any ‘chick’ whenever we feel like it -) at the same time though, is that part in our brain where the ‘unnatural thoughts’ come from… These ‘unnatural thoughts’ give us the possibility to pick and choose, to want A, and to reject B. Furthermore it gives us the ability to think in concepts and even better: to think about thinking. It creates some sort of dialogue in the mind which makes it able to annalyse things.

But how great this all may be… the body can survive without it. Conceptual thinking is not nessecary for survival, neither is interpreting things and picking and choosing… There are in fact quite a lot of people on this planet who do live without ‘unnatural thinking’

What does this have to do with coffee..?
A lot! To drink coffee one does not need the ‘unnatural thinking’. You can drink it, and if you didn’t brew a to bitter cup, you can swallow it as if it was water. The thirst is quenched, and of you go…
But to enjoy a cup of coffee the way we do it at TMC, you certainly need the ‘unnatural thinking’… In fact the more ‘unnatural thinking’ is involved and the more knowledge/experience is available in our memory, the more we can appreciate our cup! It will always be the recollection of other cups enjoyed, which will make us appreciate (or not…) the current one… That perfect model I mentioned yesterday, is in fact very important for enjoying something at all (beside the ‘basic-enjoyment’ which the body can experience - the relaxation of all muscles after a good diner for example - ).
So to refine my statement of yesterday:
-A general Perfect Model… NO such thing Sir! (although a lot of people seem to believe in such things...)
-A personal (because the recollection of our knowledge is pure subjective) perfect model: Of course. We even need it to enhance our enjoyment!


Joey wisely wrote:
- but the point is - you are right, many people don't like coffee but still drink it to be ... accepted in the community?

To add: As far as the body concerns, it has it’s own way’s of surviving, and if being accepted in a group is necessary, it will find way’s to get accepted in a far more ‘intelligent’ way than the ‘unnatural thinking’ can accomplish in a life time… But I’m afraid you’re right about that ‘accepted in the community’ matter Joey… A lot of people seem to do whatever it takes to get accepted… even drink 6 cups of coffee at the office a day to get accepted… and even worst: say they like it!

[Joey]

...And is it just the consequense of this 'mind'-living, that we think that we like that MODEL best?

You will never know who is really honest if he says he likes Jamaican Blue Mountain or if he likes to be liked liking the JBM...
I tend to believe those drinkers are more honest who admit that this expensive coffee is NOT as GOOD as most of the others.
But then again, what is "good"? How can I dare judging with my own tastebuds? Well, I do it with my instincts - which you call "natural thoughts" - bitter is poison, sour is not ripe, sweet is strength (sugar) and salty is healthy. Even a baby knows that before someone could tell him - give him a lemon and he will reject it with a funny face = instincts.
So the Jamaican maybe was a bad example, because some people might really like that particular taste. But I can't imagine anybody liking sour coffee, or bitter one, for the above reasons - instincts tell you that this can't be healthy.
Therefore I think it's ok if menkind makes a rough model, that tells the people who have lost their instincts that sour and bitter coffee is not good (for your health too) - but I agree with you that it's not necessary to get precice models (like the womens measurements 90-60-93cm for example) - I'm glad some men admit that they like "healthy shapes" instead of bones & skin....

The body (programmed through million years of evolution) is only interested in two things: to survive and to fuck. ....
...These ‘unnatural thoughts’ give us the possibility to pick and choose, to want A, and to reject B. Furthermore it gives us the ability to think in concepts and even better: to think about thinking. It creates some sort of dialogue in the mind which makes it able to annalyse things.

Yep, that's what distinguishes us from our animals...although some species have more then instincts - they can analyse and make conclusions, too...

But how great this all may be… the body can survive without it. Conceptual thinking is not nessecary for survival, neither is interpreting things and picking and choosing…

Are you sure? I think there was a time in the past where the humans would have been physicaly too weak to survive in the woods if it wasn't for their possibility of conceptual thinking we would be extinct now - but that's just MHO...from what I've learned from reading the National Geographic Magazines

But to enjoy a cup of coffee the way we do it at TMC, you certainly need the ‘unnatural thinking’… In fact the more ‘unnatural thinking’ is involved and the more knowledge/experience is available in our memory, the more we can appreciate our cup! It will always be the recollection of other cups enjoyed, which will make us appreciate (or not…) the current one…

I think that's a good thing, because when you try to analyse the different flavors in a new coffee - you train your senses again. I compare the taste with all the spices and herbs and fruits and vegetables I have ever tasted... It's a pitty though that our senses are so much degenerated compared to animals...

So to refine my statement of yesterday:
-A general Perfect Model… NO such thing Sir! (although a lot of people seem to believe in such things...)
-A personal (because the recollection of our knowledge is pure subjective) perfect model: Of course. We even need it to enhance our enjoyment!

True, I totally would like to agree - but in the same moment I think that in some situations something inbetween - some guidlines from other peoples experiences (for example roasting or recipies) - are quite helpful - one just has to be careful to be able to develope his own taste-opinion. Like I love cooking but I take cookbooks just as a guidline for "what should be in it" - after understanding the basics I develope my own recipies with different ingredients...that would be the personal model you are referring to - which I wouldn't have found without an existing so called "perfect model"... cheese and rice - and all that because of the "unnatural thoughts" you mentioned before...gotta stop. I got to bed now and try to have some natural dreams

joey