Why am I obsessed with hand-made coffee? Because of the deep love for this set of rituals and utensils!

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Coffee liberated from a cafe

There is a very important spirit in the third wave of coffee movement: "good coffee", a mysterious skill that used to be locked in the hands of a coffee bar, is now more easily available to consumers. "good Coffee" will be liberated from the cafe and enter into the life scene of every enthusiast.

There are several phenomena that support this possibility:

First, the current third wave of coffee is mainly hand-brewed. Compared with the second wave of espresso, consumers need less price to build their own brewing equipment at home. In the future, there will be more and more simple and low-cost equipment on the market for Saifeng kettle, Love pressure, and even the newly released Nomad.

Second, the digitization of coffee brewing coefficient. The scientific and digital expression of water quantity, powder quantity, and water temperature means that consumers only need to use simple equipment such as scales and thermometers to restore 80% of the results of baristas' cooking. The cooking conditions, which used to rely too much on the experience of baristas, are now being tested and digitized.

Third, the popularity of self-baking shops. The third wave of coffee regards coffee as a fresh agricultural product, paying special attention to freshness, especially the "freshness" of the period from roasting to brewing. Community-based self-drying shops are not mass-produced by multinational enterprises, so it is easier to control and shorten inventory volume and time. This means that consumers can buy fresh coffee beans from trusted professional self-baking shops in the community, from the half-year shelf life of coffee beans in the past to the fresh coffee beans that can be roasted within a month now. and according to their own needs to buy a small amount, drink and then buy fresh ones.

To sum up, the most important thing about "good coffee is more easily available to consumers" is that the threshold for consumers to make their own coffee has been lowered, from the past to the coffee shop to enjoy a good cup of coffee consumption habits, will be converted to professional coffee shops to buy good ingredients or materials, go home to brew their own.

Hand-brewed coffee-a handicraft of physical and mental integration

Hand brewing is the mainstream in the third wave of coffee, not only because the sport is dominated by the United States, which is accustomed to the taste of American coffee, but also hides the expectation of reviving the humanistic spirit in society.

Compared with the second wave of espresso, with espresso as the soul, it symbolizes the great increase in production capacity and efficiency in the industrial era of human use of machines; the revival of the third wave of hand-brewed coffee, in which people stand in front of the brewing table with small utensils on the back of large machines, may reveal our subconscious desire to find a closer connection between people and coffee.

This is not to deny the existence of people in the operation of espresso, but only in terms of the proportion observed in the picture. In the picture of hand-washing coffee table, the proportion of people has greatly increased. Compared with the previous large eye-attracting coffee machine, the "small" utensils selected by hand have greatly improved people's sense of existence, and people are also standing closer to customers.

Among several utensils for brewing coffee, hand-brewing coffee may indeed be the one that is most closely related to "people". There are almost the most unstable factors in hand flushing, and the most important thing is to cook through the "human" body (and human is probably the most complex and difficult creature in the world). Cite the mortal's current mood, physical state, the height of the hand-held flushing pot, and the law of water column circling. And so on, are having an impact on the finished product.

Based on the fact that hand flushing generally requires the stability of the water column, it involves the training of physical stability and considerable concentration. After several attempts, many beginner friends told me that hand flushing has a sense of healing, which is most likely due to the frequent information interference in modern life and the lack of concentration. In the process of focusing on hand-brewing coffee, the mind and body need to be one to cook this cup of coffee in front of you, which is quiet, light, slow and flowing, which is indeed a little Zen. Master, who personally learned by hand, also forbids us to use instruments to measure the temperature of water or the amount of powder, so that I can only use my own body senses to experience the results produced under a certain stable rhythm. In this process, there is indeed a kind of feeling of self-cultivation and mental cultivation. To put it more mysteriously in the East, when people refine a cup of coffee, coffee is also training themselves.

Coffee is not only a product or commodity made by machinery, but also a highly hand-feeling handicraft created by people using the body and mind.

Just like the hand ritual of the tea ceremony

Utensils are scattered around people, and people are in the midst of them.

Filter cup, pot, filter paper. Bean cans, bean spoons, bean grinders. Hot kettle, hand flushing kettle. A cup.

Gently hold the filter cup and place it on the pot. The filter paper is folded and unfolded according to the stitches and laid in the filter cup. Take a ladle of beans from the bean jar and pour them into the bean grinder. In a circle and two circles, the slight aroma spreads when the sound of Kala and rustling weakens, and pervades in the space when the lid is opened.

The heavy water first reached the boiling point, the smoke was ethereal from the mouth of the hot pot, and there was a dull murmur. Transfer a little water to the hand flushing pot and sprinkle it on the filter cup to warm the body and remove the dust from the filter paper. Pour the ground coffee powder into the filter cup and pat the whole powder.

Hold the kettle by hand, pour your ideas into the column of water, or gently, or unrestrained, draw a circle with one heart. At the right time, when the water is cut off, the kettle is closed, and the man is still, leaving the current to trickle. Pour the remaining water in the hand punch into the cup, warm the cup and warm the cup will hold the cup hand.

Finally, fill the cup with amber coffee and hand it to the guest. Not to mention enjoyment is only the drinker, the cook can also feel the top Daigo. )

In all this process, there is the fire of warming, the wind of spreading incense, the water of drinking water, and the heart of hospitality. It is a set of rituals that people share with nature through man-made things to convey human feelings.

Coffee brewed by hand and brewed with artificial utensils.

Man-made artifacts make man

There are as many as nine kinds of basic equipment for the hand flushing ceremony mentioned in the previous paragraph alone.

In response to the demand of the third wave of coffee, all kinds of brand-new coffee utensils have appeared frequently in the market.

Many brands have launched new or old cooking utensils and coffee products, and the design of these equipment has been infused with each brand's concept of coffee, some of which are easy to brew, some of which are more fun to control, and some that pay special attention to ornamental value. Wait. Many large factories have launched more colorful and more old models; many craftsmen have joined the war to create unique artifacts such as hand-punching pots and filter cups; and some design studios have turned to craftsmen to work together to produce exquisite hand racks and curling kettles.

Under the phenomenon of diversification and personalization of coffee products, it also announces the advent of the era of personal style of coffee. There are so many options, realize that while liberating the coffee brewing home, we should also further use the unique selection of coffee utensils to build our own style. The combination of instruments we choose represents what kind of coffee man we are.

With the advent of the Internet era, the pursuit of style is more likely to favor the visual beauty brought by the picture. It is easy for us to feel and yearn for visual beauty. To regard utensils as works of art and beauty as the first value may deviate from the essence of utensils.

Liu Zongyue, the father of Japanese folk art, once proposed that the beauty of craftsmanship lies in "use" and emphasized the feel. This kind of thinking jumps away from the pure visual beauty, but tries to enhance the functional status, and adds the touch of the five senses as one of its aesthetic criteria. The latter is aware of one thing: handicrafts, not only as the functional existence of arts or instruments, but also pay more attention to the "connection" between objects and people.

If we try to promote a cafe or restaurant to an artistic level, it is likely to be the most complex art form in the history of mankind, because it is the only one that can integrate the "five senses" (because of the sense of taste and smell).

Visual beauty is important, of course, but like the use of utensils, the essence of coffee as a drink lies in its taste, which is the strongest connection between drinks and people. The most ideal form is to be able to take into account the beauty of both inside and outside, and have a common "structure" between the inside and outside, which is the true self-style.

Even if there is the so-called "the way of the supernatural and the instrument of the physical", most of the ways of good food can only be formed through utensils, and in any case, it is created by people, and the connoisseurs are also people.

The original article was published in issue 48 of Coffee Trapi.