The Journal is an online collection of articles and essays written and curated by Thomas W Coombs, published bi-annually.

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Issue 31; Coffee

You can tell from the clearly overly thought out title that after weeks of different options and decisions it was just a simple to the point that won, very much like the world's favourite stimulant.  I have mentioned coffee before back in December, you can see that one here, but recently I started to think about my liking of the simple drink. And the seven days of coffee began.





“I like my coffee like I like my women. In a plastic cup”, Eddie Izzard

Monday is the start of my week, a struggle to put myself in work week mode from the more relaxed weekend state I have come from.  Even with now being on lockdown, and the very new concept of working from home all the time, I do split my weeks so there is a difference, from clothes to tasks.  The morning coffee ritual travels from day to day, I have juice and a lungo size coffee as the first things after shaving and dressing. It truly prepares me for the day ahead and that liquid love and alert feeling it brings is what draws me to it.  I have also been let down which in turn starts the week badly by a burnt coffee or overly floral notes in my bean.


"Even a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all", David Lynch

Tuesday is a day of tasks-a-plenty, the get go feeling on Monday is gone, I find Tuesday a good solid work day, settled and not stressful.  But I actually drink an extra cup of coffee in the morning, I always seem to need that extra push. I use my coffee time to read or update myself on articles from websites I like along with bigger ones from the likes of Esquire, GQ, Permanent Style and Mr Porter.





"Never trust anyone who doesn't drink coffee", AJ Lee

Wednesday, the middle of the working week for many, social media just calls it hump day and a day when coffee is required with a late morning cup also.  For me I find it calming, it makes me stop, one to make the cup and secondly to sit and drink the large espresso. And much like coffee I feel each day has its own characteristics in people's lives and if Wednesday was a coffee, for me it would be a light roast with lots of flavour and full of acid.




"I like coffee because it gives me the illusion that I might be awake", Lewis Black

Thursday is a more relaxed day and the morning, afternoon and evening coffees are in full swing, the week has pulled on the mind and tiredness has dripped into the whirring cogs of the brain.  It is a day my work team has a coffee break style online meeting, mostly for me to get Netflix recommendations of a younger crowd and discuss Star Wars related themes and how far one of them has got with The Witcher 3.  I also like to write on a Thursday after work, it usually just involves a lot of notes and scribbling bad ideas out but this is what most writing is. That after work coffee time gives me the space to do this.


"If it wasn't for the coffee, I'd have no identifiable personality whatsoever", David Letterman

Friday, the first day of the weekend, is a day of POETS as we finish our days a little early, have lunch time meetings and also have the best time of the week for me, the cocktail hour.  But first coffee. Two in the morning, followed by two at 4pm as I relax after the week of work, followed by something a little weaker in the way of caffeine but with much alcohol. I read with Friday morning coffee and if the new Esquire magazine has come out the better as I calm my mind with the feel of the heavy paper stock and the glossy finish of this lifestyle bible.  With my late afternoon coffee it is the thing that gets me into the evening without just being asleep on the sofa.

“What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup”, Henry Rollins

Saturday, the day started with so much coffee that I usually feel like I need a nap afterwards, or pancakes, the latter wins each time.  The roasted behemoth of blackness just takes over the morning, surrounded by notes and reading material. It sets me up for weekend home jobs like bread baking, and if I have absorbed so much caffeine along with knowledge I am happy even though it will wear off, but the caffeine always remains.




“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”, T. S. Eliot

Sunday, a day of rest and a day of just the one coffee with a light breakfast, preferably in the outdoors, with the English weather permitting.  There is something about the smell of Sunday cut grass and freshly made Espresso which makes the experience a dream of the day and calms and relaxes the mind.  A day of replenishment and contemplation, with an early afternoon family film, and a hearty lunch or dinner, before setting ones self up for the week ahead.