A Love Affair (aka obsession) with Coffee

My writing like Balzac is fuelled by coffee, well perhaps more accurately my entire life is fuelled by coffee, I can’t function without the stuff. On most days I have an average of 6 cups…before midday and another 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Cut a vein open and I’ll bleed black coffee. I love the smell, the bitterness. The whole ritual of that first morning cup. F**k the wheel, the greatest invention in the history of mankind was the humble cup of coffee. Whoever it was that first turned bean into caffeinated elixir performed the greatest miracle of all time, except maybe if Jesus really did turn water into wine. What a guy.

When I start learning a new language one of the first things I learn is how to order coffee, in French: ‘un café allongé s’il-vous plaît’, Norwegian: ‘kan jeg få en kopp svart kaffe, takk’ and in Korean: ‘아메리카노 한잔 주세요’. I mean it’s an essential phrase, right? Forget asking for directions to le tour Eiffel, Gyeongbokgung or the nearest Fjord. I want to know where the cafe with the best coffee and people watching is.