SuttaCentral
I was inspired by the simple contentment in Angarika Michael’s post and couldn’t resist starting this thread.
I’m not a coffee drinker…but this is for those of you who are. 
Perhaps you can post your favourite moments with coffee? Only, please do relate it back to some inspiring or humble or happy or secluded or kalyana mitta based or relief giving moment in your life/Practice. 
You get the idea.
Okay…I can think of non-coffee related moments with non-coffee drinks!! So I changed the title and now this thread is unconditionally open to all lovers of the occasional hot drink…
Chai, sencha, matcha, various herbal infusions…
I’ll start shall I? 
So after a night time talk or Q & A session on a retreat, I like to head back to a kitchen or kettle and prepare an infusion of Chamomile or some other relaxing brew. I might then sit and reflect on what I’ve heard, or meditate, or read from the Nikayas while I wait for my drink to steep. And then it was nice to gently sip it and just be…
I may be monopolizing the coffee thread, but at the risk of being obnoxious, I can share another coffee story. Perhaps a weird or caffeinated commentary on my life that so many highlights feature coffee…
A long time ago,there was a thread on SC about coffee (actually, about The Ghaṭīkāra Sutta, but nevermind…) . French pressed coffee, Italian moka pots, Turkish coffee. Many of us weighed in on coffee. Coffee like tar and molasses, and references to Bhante Sujato and strong coffee. Ayya Vimala commented on coffee, as I recall . It was all good craic, as they say. It was a thread that brought all of us close on a happy subject, but we were all so far from each other physically on this globe.
If any of us here feel we’re not connected, or not kalyana-mitta-ish, or just not truly deeply connected in this large and crazy world…I found myself a few weeks ago at Mahapajapati Monastery, with some lovely oily Arabica beans in a new grinder, making French pressed coffee for this great Burmese Bhikkhuni, and standing in the kitchen with our great mutual friend Ayya Vimalā (she’s every bit as smart, interesting and lovely as she seems), and serving this heroic elderly Burmese Abbess a cup of fresh, strong, dark Arabica coffee.
Ayya Vimala and I laughed as we made and served the fresh, pitch dark coffee, remembering the old thread about tar-like coffee, and Bhante Sujato’s coffee preferences, from Sutta Central.
So all of us here are so deeply yet remotely and digitally connected, kalyana-mitta of perhaps a very good sort, and yet in one circumstance, coffee brought a few of us together in a dry and remote desert place, and reminded me of the power and beauty of Sutta Central and the capacity for spiritual friends to find ways to meet and celebrate what is so good with SC, our teachers, and the Dhamma.
how lovely 
My husband loves coffee and we have a machine and grinder sitting on our kitchen bench. Occasionally I have a sip and then comment on the bitterness etc. etc. to which he says, “there’s a complexity with the taste”.
A year ago, last October, I spent a week at Abhayagiri. One evening, while sipping a cup of Earl Grey on the front porch of the old kitchen, (which no longer exists) a couple of deer had wandered into the cloister area. There were some lavender planted right in front of the porch where I was sitting, and sure enough, they made their way over for an evening meal. The sun was low in the sky, my tummy was warm from the tea, and peace was surrounding me. I truly felt, at that moment, the beauty of the Sangha, and, if we allow ourselves the chance to truly be in the moment, how profound such simple moments can be.
I have an Aeropress, which is a durable, portable Espresso maker. For me it’s quite a utilitarian gadget.
I drink coffee only, rarely tea. Why not tea? Too many kilesas; I love good tea too much, so I had to give it up.
Ah yes…good tea…mmmm…
If only I didn’t get so hyperactive on the amount of caffeine in a cup of tea…but I do… I rarely have tea for pleasure, despite my lip smacking love for it. Mostly it’s if I’m super tired and have stuff to do. And I can’t handle coffee for this purpose - it makes me feel wretched, the shakes sometimes and churning tummy… 
…and…
Nice. 
A portable press coffee maker? You are my new hero! 
I do enjoy coffee and to a lesser extent, tea. Because of some health issues, I have trouble waking up in the morning efficiently so strong coffee or tea is really helpful. I used to drink diet coke but like others have mentioned “I liked it too much”
While in Penang recently, I went to several appointments with a very good massage therapist (who gives free treatments to the monks). That therapist was a hardcore tea afficionado, and he also has a highly refined Chinese tea getup on his desk (taking up about 40% of the surface area), where he served us all exquisite “Kuan Yin” Chinese tea in tiny shotglass sized teacups. That slab of hardwood and the teapot with the spheres in the lid are each worth about $1K US apparently. He has several barista-style accessories to make the hot water the perfect temperature, measure out the tea, etc. The teapots are small, only about 5" across, minus handle and spout.
IMHO: the churning tummy thing (AKA “gutrot”) is an indication of coffee which is too low-quality. Of course, as a monastic I’m supposed to be content with whatever is offered, but I’ll usually decline altogether (which is a valid choice for monastics as well, you know, abstinence), if my health will take noticeable damage (like gutrot). The immediate and obvious health damage creates a valid reason to say “No”, and no one can accuse one of just being fussy.
So I think there is a middle ground between tea/coffee snobbery (which is excessively sensualist), and self-mortification by drinking, say, Instant Nescafe (which, by the way, additionally makes my eye muscles involuntarily twitch at the sides, even if it’s decaf).
My Aeropress (and small stash of freshly ground, fine-grind coffee) is, IMHO, a sensible self-defense measure to protect my stomach from the pernicious view (that seems to be prevailant in ethnic Asian monasteries) that Instant coffee is coffee, and normal, brewed coffee somehow is an option too far out of the reaches of normal, day-to-day reality (let alone addressable by the word “coffee”).
Having said that, Nandaka monastery of Penang has offerings of local, fresh, whole roasted coffee beans of excellent quality, plus a coffee grinder in their kitchen. The Chinese Malaysians are a hip bunch (in many ways), I tell you!
That is my favorite, a lovely Oolong. When I worked as a barista I found the English translation on the label, Iron Goddess of Mercy, really compelling.
Your massage therapist’s tea set is very nice, but I badly want to take Urnex or something to those glasses. 
I had a similar experience. But, while drinking ginger-lemon tea. It was a small village in the Himalayas, at 3600m altitude. For once, the incessant turmoil in my mind became a low murmur and it was a good feeling and I took a picture of what lay in front:
The village itself is one of my favorite places:
That’s beautiful.
When I saw those, shall we say, “well-seasoned” glasses, I instantly thought almost the exact same thing! In my case I was thinking of my little bottle of rubbing alcohol, for cleaning just such cronically-overlooked, revolting grunginesses. Like the mice and keys of communally shared laptops and keyboards in monasteries). Blegh!!
Indeed Mara chases me the very fastest of all should I dare concoct a moaning-in-ecstasy cup of 80 deg C choice, superb Oolong. I have to run away like Superman avoids Kryptonite.
Hey, are you still in Penang? I’ll be there in a few weeks!
Ah…haa…haa…haa…
herrrr…errr…um…actually, I am only laughing because, to tell the truth, this is how it makes me feel:
Will I be in Penang in a few weeks? The answer is, “probably”. If all goes as I’m hoping, I’ll be back to Nandaka Jan. 25.
