Coffee is more than hot liquid in a mug. It has a long history, of labor, of craft, science, and people. Unfortunately, we are so quick to forget the depth of our coffee’s complexity and narrative.
The act of coffee brewing is more than turning grounds into a hot beverage. Brewing is not merely a means to an end, it is something that can change us if we’re paying attention. We can reap rewards before our first cup, brewing itself is beautiful.
Do you want a rich life that’s full of appreciation, perspective, and focus? I want to show you how you can experience these things by adopting a mindset while you brew your coffee.
Read: 5 Ways To Up Your Coffee Game
Manual brewing connects us with the coffee in a way automatic brewing never will. It puts us right in the action, submerges our senses, and allows us to see our hard work transform before us. Manual coffee brewing is a great way to dive into this life changing mindset.
Manual Brewing Grows Our Perspective
Coffee’s history is filled with violence, oppression, and poverty. While violence and oppression have faded away as means of enslaving coffee producers over the last two hundred years, poverty still remains a deadly reality.
Our coffee habits can be a force for good or evil. Buy low quality, low cost beans from a mysterious source, and you could unknowingly be contributing to the complex system that keeps many farmers poor. Buy excellent beans from a transparent source, and you participate in the slow climb towards farmer financial security, education, healthcare, and beyond.
Manual brewing requires the work of our hands. It’s nothing like farming coffee plants or processing the beans, but the physical act of brewing coffee reminds us where our coffee comes from: hard working people around the globe, many of whom live in poverty.
Read: 5 Things That Ruin Your Coffee
Auto brewing is convenient, but it distances us from the reality that over a billion people work to support themselves in the global coffee industry. Throwing grounds into a machine that spills out coffee desensitizes us to the labor that got us the coffee in the first place.
Manual brewing allows our perspective to blossom. As we use our hands to brew, we consider the many hands that brought our precious coffee to us, and we become more compassionate and globally-conscious because of it.
Manual Brewing Helps Us Focus On The Present
Though every manual brewing method uses a different process or technique, they all cause us to focus on the moment in order to brew the best coffee we can.
Pour over brewing helps us focus with slow, meditative pouring. When we set a timer for the French Press, we’re aware of every second until we get to pour the brewed coffee into our mug. We awaken our sleepy muscles to press down the Aeropress plunger. These moments, though seemingly small, have the power to settle us into the present, because we have to be intentional about them.
Read: Why You Should Ditch Your Drip Coffee Pot For A French Press
We’re bad at being intentional. We let the days flow by on autopilot. Weeks, months, and years go by as we drift along. If we’re not focused and intentional, we miss so much that life has to offer.
Auto coffee brewing does nothing to grab us out of our drifting, unfocused motions. The process does nothing to draw you into a rich life. It merely sends you along on your tired-eyed, meandering way.
Manual coffee brewing draws us from our sleepy autopilot mode and pulls us into reality with focus and intentionality. When we start the morning this way, the day doesn’t drift into a string of events. It becomes a canvas of possibility.
Read: How and Why to Create The Perfect Morning Routine
Manual Brewing Causes Us To Appreciate The Little Things
We get to see the whole show up close with manual brewing. The way the grounds swell as the carbon dioxide is released at first contact with water. The gentle dripping of brown coffee from the pour over cone into your mug.
The slow color change of the water in a French Press. The aromas of coffee beans as you grind them smaller and smaller. The weight of the kettle in your hand.
Life is not a string of events. It’s a mysterious and beautiful opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the world around us. When we get a clear look at a process as complex and diverse as coffee brewing, we can’t help but notice and appreciate the little things.
Read: What Makes Specialty Coffee Special?
Auto brewing paints no picture of life’s wonders for us. It offers no window into our beautiful reality.
Manual brewing, on the other hand, captivates our senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. It provides a compelling moment to look beyond our own experiences and see the complexity and splendor of a process so simple as making coffee.
Manual coffee brewing teaches us daily to appreciate the little things. To live the rich life we all want, we need that daily reminder to stay attentive and appreciative.
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Life should be rich, beautiful, inspiring, intentional, and friendly.
If you haven’t tried manual brewing, I cannot recommend it enough. As long as you’re open to a mindset shift, it’ll help grow your perspective, live with intentionality, and appreciate the little thing.
