Welcome to the first issue of Coffee Nooks. Well, technically issue zero.
Coffee was introduced to me by a mentor in the summer of 2017. Before then, coffee was just the caramel macchiatos I'd order at Starbucks.
That summer, I fell into the world of pour overs. And boy, did my life change.
It started with a gifted Hario V60, a cheap kettle from Walmart, and a secondhand Bodum French Press (kinda gross, looking back).
Fast forward several years. During the peak of COVID, I moved to Toronto and spent six months basically trapped in a basement. That's when I found coffee subscriptions, starting with the th3rdwave Coffee Club.
All of a sudden, the world of coffee was showing up in the 400 sq ft basement I was renting. First a roastery in Nashville, TN, then Olympia, WA, then Sumatra, Indonesia.
In grade 10 Social Studies, we learned about globalization. I'd do a terrible job explaining it, so here's the definition:
Globalization: the growing interdependence and integration of the world's economies, cultures, technologies, and populations through cross-border trade, investment, and communication.
In more relatable words, globalization is when coffee beans from Nashville, Olympia, and Sumatra all fit in the coffee nook in my kitchen.
I started posting about each cup on Instagram, under the handle @chrsbrews.
Over time the posts slowed down, but the love for coffee never stopped. It flourished. When I got my first "big kid" job, I picked up three essentials for pour over:
A Baratza Encore, everyone's first real grinder
A stone blue Fellow Stagg EKG kettle with a walnut finish
The classic white Acaia Pearl scale
(A story for another day: when I moved to Lubbock, TX to be with my wife, I shipped all my coffee gear ahead with the hope it would beat me there. After endless delays and about 90 days in transit, it all arrived. Albeit, a little bruised).
Three years married (almost to the day), a dog, and two moves later, my coffee habits have shifted to espresso, mostly on our Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier in a beautiful trace blue.
That brings us to Coffee Nooks. Each issue, I'll share someone's setup, a coffee shop worth the trip, a drink to try at home, and gear I've come across lately. Maybe with a few other things in between.
Coffee is one of the few passions that's stuck with me for close to a decade now, and I'm excited to share it with you.
If you’re reading this, I’m going to safely assume you too are a coffee drinker. I’d love to see your coffee nook and feature it on the newsletter.
Pull up a mug. Here's to the nooks.
- Chris