It was tropical, the beautiful country in the Caribbean, a place you would reverie for a Covid lockdown – it was Barbados! The time of year was right, like all the other times of year really, mangos sit ripe on the tree in the front yard. We arrived in warm inviting weather at a sizable and comfortable AirBnB villa. After my usual sanitizing of the place, me and guests made ourselves at home then unpacked must-haves travel-along food items. As I got to the pièce de résistance – coffee, I searched for the coffee maker featured in the villa photos. To my surprise, that sizable coffee brewer turned out to be a rather minute glass menagerie not at all fit for consumption of human coffee – and not clean.
Coffee, it’s the quintessential kickstart to a perfect day – just the aroma alone boosts the dopamine into high drive. It’s such a disdain that the world is not filled with less angry and awful people – with mega consumption and coffee-love running rampant – we should be predominantly happy people, with pumped up pleasure pulses!
Back to the villa, when my conscious mind and eyes fixated on the supposed coffee pot, right away I notified the Host to address the unsuitable coffee item, she replied that there are “other pots around there”.
Let me enlighten fully, UK residents make up the bulk of tourism on this island and the Host lives in the UK – if that didn’t give you an inkling let me be exact, they are British, they predominantly drink tea! Maybe that crew brexited way before the world’s passion on coffee had been known.
The Host actually said, “I hope you can manage for a week with what the villa offers.” Not at all pleasant to a real coffee drinkers’ ears, so my guest and were forced to apply some happy and bring out the carry-along instant coffee and condiments!
Bringing happy back:
Sans a dynamic cup of freshly brewed coffee, the most satisfying way to make a great cup of coffee anytime, anywhere, in minutes is to break out the instant. Any real coffee drinker has some for travel in absence of a suitable brewer. Along with our packets, sugar and crème, for those fufu drinkers, we instantly had our effervescence of the aroma and taste that is a complex and nuanced experience—there’s the comforting warmth and the loveliness of the ritual of sitting down with a fresh cup.
Aaah!
Coffee is not always there, but you are – make it work. If coffee brings you that dopamine happy, make it available – it may be the ‘pump’ that primes your day. Call it an emergent source, if you love coffee, travel with coffee, life can be that simple.
We want to be happy, don’t we?