This is a photo of my morning coffee as I wait for it to flow from dripper into cup. One of the best things about using the pour over method is that the scent of coffee rises to greet you while you wait for the lovely black nectar to drip down below. I prefer dark roasts because of their full-bodied flavour and buttery scent. It is precisely because of this buttery scent that I like to stand watch over my coffee. It smells more buttery than actual butter; it smells the way good butter tastes.

The minutes spent hovering over my pour over waiting for the extracted coffee to drip down so I can add more water are minutes suspended in time: all there is, is me and my coffee. There are mornings where I feel that I can stand there and inhale its scent forever, but if I did that, I would’t be able to taste it. I like my coffee two ways: either hot and black or iced and with a lot of milk. There is no in between.

I usually take it black, though. Smooth and dark, it is a liquid fuel that fires me up with a jolt, that pumps me full of caffeine and optimism. I can do anything. The day is mine.

Whoever looked at a coffee bean and thought, “I can roast this and it will give me life” was a genius. Coffee has become more than a drink. To many people, it’s a lifestyle. For me, it’s an essential part of my daily life. I know that I can live without coffee; I’ve done it before, with no ill effects. But the question is, why would I want to?