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Mark

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photo (my trusty iPhone 6s) circa autumn 2019, Geshary Coffee boutique, Tokyo
it was an extremely mild but very pleasant body.
the first i had heard of this Costa Rican plantation.
from their website showing their multilevel shop adjacent to the imperial palace.
floor04.jpg
 

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I must say that every cup of coffee I have consumed, enjoyed, sipped, savoured, sampled, actually relished, since Friday, has tasted like nectar.
 
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A dirty, filthy wet, dark, dreary November day.

Yet my coffee (a blend of three coffees from central America) is going down rather well, made from organic, full fat, hot milk.
 

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A bit of Vitamin D never goes amiss…
Being a very chilly but beautiful bright morning, I sat out in the Parade Gardens sipping a coffee from one of the independents open for take away coffees.

I really do feel for them. Just as things were starting to open. Bang… down come the shutters. Landlords aren't budging and so one after the other they close.

I suspect our local Art shop — trading nearly 200 years — is going to fall victim. With no online sales they cannot compete with the big art supply stores.

*sigh*
 

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A bit of Vitamin D never goes amiss…
Being a very chilly but beautiful bright morning, I sat out in the Parade Gardens sipping a coffee from one of the independents open for take away coffees.

I really do feel for them. Just as things were starting to open. Bang… down come the shutters. Landlords aren't budging and so one after the other they close.

I suspect our local Art shop — trading nearly 200 years — is going to fall victim. With no online sales they cannot compete with the big art supply stores.

*sigh*

I'm astonished that so many landlords are so blithely insulated from reality that they fail to realise that no rental income whatsoever comes in from a business that has shut down, whereas some flexibility might benefit both, and that economic conditions do not encourage other businesses to replace them as demand will not exist.
 

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I'm astonished that so many landlords are so blithely insulated from reality that they fail to realise that no rental income whatsoever comes in from a business that has shut down, whereas some flexibility might benefit both, and that economic conditions do not encourage other businesses to replace them as demand will not exist.
100% agree.
But rather sit back board up the windows and… wait…
 

Huntn

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Speaking of tea, there must be tea mentioned somewhere in this thread, I dug a vintage tin labeled Harrods Strong Breakfast Tea out of a cabinet in the dining room. Had we been brewing tea in the dining room? Maybe. I think my wife just wanted the tin, but to my surprise it’s full of tea, 1-2 decade old tea. It looked good, past the smell test, I’m a gambler, so I brewed up a packet and it tastes good! At least good enough to satisfy my pedestrian tastes. Remember, I’m the guy who drinks instant coffee frequently, when I don’t want to mess with the coffee press. ☺️

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This unlike the favored tequila we brought back from Mexico about 7 years ago. We had not been drinking it and after a taste test, I pitched all of that and am sad I did not bring back some traditional high grade tequila instead. I assume that would have aged better.
 

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November brings the time when I long for chocolate with my tea or coffee.

So now, on a wet and windy Friday afternoon, I am sipping a coffee (made from a blend of my own devising of coffees from El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica, plus organic, full fat, hot milk) and nibbling Jaffa cakes.
 

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View attachment 1543
Bologna (2013.04.21 14:40)

What an absolutely gorgeous cup and saucer.

The kind of cup and saucer that simply enhances the experience of enjoying a coffee, espresso, cappuccino or something similar.

Sigh.

This is the answer to those philistines who think that coffee (or anything else, outside of an emergency) ought to be served in anything other than a proper mug or cup and saucer.
 

Mark

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What an absolutely gorgeous cup and saucer.

The kind of cup and saucer that simply enhances the experience of enjoying a coffee, espresso, cappuccino or something similar.

@Scepticalscribe

good morning.

you are of course right.

firstly, the weight of these beautiful devices.
small, but hefty. its a purposed piece. meaningful in its weight.

secondly, the size is built for its destiny.
no orange juice goes in these, ever.

thirdly, closely linked to the above, the size is extricably linked to the time it begs you to finish your espresso drink within.
no grande no venti no trenta. it laughs at those monstrosities.

fourthly, the colour being white expects you will bring your mood to the event; the reverse, with it imposing a mood on you, is neatly avoided.

regarding specifically the Attibassi saucer i was able to admire that time in Bologna while on business, your expert eyes picked up on its form.
Alors, the cup itself fits into its indentation. this is usual. but then the lip to that indentation then moves into valley. that lip and valley are protective so that a small spill is contained narrowly, and the outer valley insures any spill not to reach a visually offending level, nor to reach a biscuit placed within the outer ring. and the total effect is that the saucer presents the cup to you, which sits at the arrangement's pinnacle. the saucer is actually quite amazingly a flat saucer - while accomplishing all these other architectural feats.

a tool.
a piece of art.
a lens into the surrounding square's culture.
a personal wormhole, able to connect you with disparate parts of your journey so far.
 
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@Scepticalscribe

good morning.

you are of course right.

firstly, the weight of these beautiful devices.
small, but hefty. its a purposed piece. meaningful in its weight.

secondly, the size is built for its destiny.
no orange juice goes in these, ever.

thirdly, closely linked to the above, the size is extricably linked to the time it begs you to finish your espresso drink within.
no grande no venti no trenta. it laughs at those monstrosities.

fourthly, the colour being white expects you will bring your mood to the event; the reverse, with it imposing a mood on you, is neatly avoided. the saucer, while fulfilling all its wonderful housekeeping purposes, is actually overall quite flat. an amazing design achievement.

regarding specifically the Attibassi saucer i was able to admire that time in Bologna while on business, your expert eyes picked up on its form.
Alors, the cup itself fits into its indentation. this is usual. but then the lip to that indentation then moves into valley. that lip and valley are protective so that a small spill is contained narrowly, and the outer valley insures any spill not to reach a visually offending level, nor to reach a biscuit placed within the outer ring. and the total effect is that the saucer presents the cup to you, which sits at the arrangement's pinnacle. the saucer is actually quite amazingly a flat saucer - while accomplishing all these other architectural feats.

a tool.
a piece of art.
a lens into the surrounding square's culture.
a personal wormhole, able to connect disparate parts of your journey so far.

Nearly a decade ago, my favourite local Italian coffee shop (my mother and I used to enjoy coffee there frequently, and it closed just before her dementia had become more pronounced) shut down, a casualty of the recession at the time.

I offered to buy some of their crockery - their espresso cups and saucers, and indeed, cappuccino cups and saucers - were all made by the wonderful Italian company d'Ancap, beautiful to heft, hold, and to sip and savour an espresso from - and they kindly sold me some beautiful and quite exquisite Italian crockery, which I still have (and use) to this day.
 

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Enjoying my Ethiopian coffee.

This afternoon, it is served with organic double cream, not organic, full fat, hot milk. That is because - and this is the drawback of natural, organic, stuff - when I opened the fridge today and had poured some milk into a saucepan, I realised from its disturbing, unsettling, slightly solid texture, that it was well on the way to becoming natural yogurt.

And the milk was in the fridge, and it is winter, - rapidly approaching deepest, darkest winter - in our northern hemispheres.......in summer, yes, I can understand natural milk may not last a week, but in winter.....

So, today, my coffee approaches the way I tend to take it in summer, when the need for hot milk is a lot less pressing.
 
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