The Morning Brew
It's Sunday evening and time to wind down. A mint green Moccamaster sits on the counter top.
Grind the beans. Filter. Scoop seven times. Fill the reservoir.
Pause.
Remind myself not to turn on the coffeemaker. Before rest and sleep I'm already looking forward to flipping that switch in the morning. Hearing the element crank up. The pump starts surging water through the heating element. The drip beginning. The aroma.
Whether dreading the return to the office in the morning, or looking forward to the week ahead, the small ritual of preparing the coffee for the morning provides a brief pause. A moment to collect myself. Set an intention, even if it's just to enjoy that first cup of coffee in the morning.
Last year my partner gave me a mint green Moccamaster for my birthday. It has been the perfect compliment to that morning ritual, and it also adds a small moment of thankfulness to her each time I prepare the coffee.
As someone who saw Fight Club in the theater in my early college years, bits of it have stuck with me over. One of them being the narrator's refrain after his apartment blew up, "I had that couch thing figured out." Couched in a rather anti-capitalist narrative, the idea of finding that one thing that fulfills a need and sticking with it can be seen in a capitalism is necessary, but I'm only going to buy into it as much as I absolutely have to, then I'm getting off the hamster wheel (also, totally complicated by being couched within major Hollywood studio production ... onion peel levels of subversion?).
But that's how I feel about this Moccamaster. I have that coffee thing figured out. It makes a damn fine cup of coffee. It's simple. Not a whole lot to break. All the parts are replaceable. Yes, it fed into the capitalist system to buy it. But I will hopefully never buy another coffee maker, replacing bits and pieces of this one should they ever fail.
And, much like the 911, it would seem Technivorm, maker of the Moccamaster, figured out the design and have not felt the need to reinvent it.