The Story

(transcript- these audio vignettes were aired on News Radio KOTA in Rapid City South Dakota)

Did you know that your morning coffee is more than just an amazing gustatorial delight? It has a story, a rich story whose entire purpose is about its conclusion as an amazing drink appreciated by the consumer. From its inception as a delicate white flower, to its ripening as a coffee cherry, its journey from harvest to the roasting and finally in the cup, its journey is a living story unfolding.

Hi, I’m Michael, the Aussie Coffee Guy and I’d like to welcome you to my Monday Morning Musings.

What are these morning musing you ask? Well for years I used to hit the ground running every morning. I think my greatest accomplishment from this was stress and high blood pressure. So now, before I engage with “life, the universe and everything in it” I make my morning brew – that’s Australian for coffee – look out the window at the hills, and contemplate “life, the universe and everything in it”. The outcome of those musings always seems to find an outlet sometime during the day.

Of course, I’m in the right place for that to happen because I own Essence of Coffee. And I love the vibe of Essence just as much as I love creating a great coffee experience. The cafe is the place where stories come together. And for me, whether it’s an educational story about coffee or a meaningful life story, I enjoy telling a good story. Lesley, my chickee-babe-for-life, warns people, “ask a question; get a story”. And yes, there is a story behind chickee-babe, but you’ll have to ask the question.

As an avid coffee guy, I am very conscious of the story of the coffee bean. The story is about a journey, a journey called “Seed to Cup”, and the ending of this journey is the affect it has on the one who drinks it. From the coffee beans birth as a seed within the coffee cherry, its nurtured growth, timely harvest and precise processing all the way to the roaster and ultimately the barista. The nurture of each stage of the journey maintains its purity leading to the climax, when the consumer, tasting the coffee, experiences with satisfaction the story’s conclusion presenting that ‘ahhh Moment’. 

Our mission at Essence is to present the sensual ending to the coffee bean story. You could say we preserve the ‘ahhhh’ in every cup – cheesy I know.

The vibe of Essence begins where the coffee beans story ends. Great coffee is a significant part of creating an environment that people enjoy. It is the essence of what brings people together, creating a point of intersection in the various stories; creating, if you will, a story within a story, a destination for a moment and then a beginning.

The poet John Donne wrote:

No one is an island, entire of itself; everyone is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

I guess this is the outcome of my musings, that our stories created and enriched by sharing in the stories of others. The café is a place that brings stories together and I hope that in some way it adds a little to each story.

Thanks for musing with me. Enjoy the journey and may the end of your story be as meaningful as the coffee beans in my early morning brew.

Now grab a friend, drop into Essence of Coffee and write some more of your story over a true Aussie flat white.