Zhanlu Coffee, Taipei

Coffee is kooky.

The barista before me reminds me of Daria from the 1997 Gen-X MTV anime and also of Neil Gaiman’s sweet goth chick version of Death. She has a tattoo of a playing card spade on her left hand. It could be me but I swear the spade shifts just a little as she brews our coffee.

They say you can read tea leaves, the dregs at the bottom of your teacup when you’ve had your last sip. I can’t but wonder if you could do same with a tattoo of a playing card spade. I’m rambling, of course. It’s probably just the lighting.

Outside the rain keeps falling and our barista’s gentle voice as she explains the profile of the beans we’ve chosen – a Monsoon Malabar is one unusual, happy choice – lulls us to a dreamy state of bliss even before we’ve had a single sip. The aroma of coffee being brewed before us is intoxicating. Such simple pleasure.

She asks us if we are tourists. We tell her we travel from city to city visiting cafés and drinking coffee. She tells us she’s heading to Bangkok soon for a holiday – any recommendations? We write down a list of our favourite coffee bars there for her. The circle of good coffee karma is complete.

Om. Such simple pleasure, this.

記得那是我們抵達台北的第一天。
Check-in酒店，小歇了一會兒；
等我們坐在咖啡館裡頭時，都已經是傍晚時分了。
四月的台北涼涼的，外頭還下著毛毛雨，
這時候手裡捧著熱杯咖啡，真是一種享受。
更叫我開心的是，這裡竟然有風漬馬拉巴Monsoon Malabar這支有故事的豆子。

早期的海運速度非常緩慢，
咖啡從印度馬拉巴海岸運到歐洲需要六個月的時間。
豆子在長時間受到海風和海水濕氣的影響后，
無論是外表或風味都產生了變化。
酸味變低了，顏色也從綠色轉成金黃色；
還會發展出有堅果的味道，喝的時候帶有些許日式玄米茶的風味，
深得許多歐洲人的喜愛。
去年老鼠醫生從英國回來，買了許多不同豆子的咖啡粉給我，
裡頭就有這支風漬馬拉巴。
說也奇怪，我一般都喜歡口味較淺，酸度較高的咖啡，
不過對口感十足的風漬馬拉巴卻情有獨鍾。