The title of this post is addressed to the anonymous person who bought me coffee yesterday morning. I usually make coffee in the morning, using a three cup Chemex coffee maker. I like the one piece model with the glass handle, after having tried the classic model with the wooden collar that gets tied with a leather string, similar to a leather shoe string. Think Docksiders if you remember them, that’s what the leather string reminded me of when I first saw it. While I prefer the model with the wooden collar for aethestic reasons, I find that the one piece model with the glass handle has it beaten, hands down, from a convenience perspective. After you brew the coffee, you rinse it out, and that’s it! I usually use a Central American coffee from the Brooklyn Roasting Company, as it meets the criteria for good Bulletproof Coffee, is pretty easy to find around here and the price isn’t bad, compared to some of the other specialized coffee roasters.

Once a week or so I pick up coffee on the way home from church in the morning. It sometimes seems like there’s a never ending string of coffee shop options in my neighborhood, although the trend for new ones opening seems to have slowed over the past six months or so. The attitude in a lot of these place is surprisingly thick, or at least surprising to me. My favorite experience along these lines, or at least my favorite experience to talk about after the fact, is when one shop refused to grind a bag of beans for me, even though I explained I lived a block away, was going home immediately, and was willing to take on the risk and bear the responsibility of whatever might happen to the beans between the shop and home.

I knew the battle was lost when one person behind the counter shrugged and in a tone somewhere between a murmur and a mumble, maybe a murble, let me know that not grinding beans was “company policy”. All the while noise from the coffee grinder, being used to grind a fresh set of beans right behind her, nearly drowned out the murmble. Another colleague, intensely concentrating on the preparation of a fresh pour over, managed to pull his attention away long enough to provide an affirmative nod. At that point, my mind short circuited momentarily, as I knew my usual, logical approach to negotiation would be useless there. I regrouped, decided to cut my losses, and walk to another shop two blocks down the street where they were happy to grind a bag of beans for me, no questions asked ☺

That’s an example of an experience that makes me wary of some of the attitude-heavy coffee places around here. Rather than go into what I don’t like about some of the others, I’d rather talk about Sweetleaf. Sweetleaf gets it right for me. It’s a comfortable space, very limited to no attitude from the people behind the counter, although sometimes it’s up to you to break the ice. The coffee is fantasic and everyone I’ve come in contact there really knows their stuff. I went there after reading about Bulletproof Coffee. They didn’t blink an eye when I asked for a Central American coffee, that’s grown at high altitude, and proccessed via a washed or wet method. In fact, I think they presented me with two options.

So to make a long story short, if it’s not already too late to do that, it’s at Sweetleaf where somebody bought me coffee yesterday. I ordered a small coffee, drip (it’s faster), rather than pour over (I’m still working to build my patience up to this option…work in progress…), and handed the cashier a $20 bill. She opened the drawer and said, “oh wait!”. I’m thinking, what, did the ATM at Duane Reed spit out a counterfeit $20? Then she told me the coffee was already paid for and gave me back the $20. I was confused because there was nobody else in the place and I didn’t give her my “buy a bunch, get one free card”. She expained to me that the person who had just been in before me had earned a free drink on their “buy a bunch, get one free card” and left it for the next person to stop in, which was me.

What a really nice surprise to start the day! Saving the $3 was nice, although what stuck with me was experiencing an act of selfless generosity from a stranger. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve experienced that and the experience has seriously convinced me to do the same from time to time. I’ve also heard a lot of people talk about “paying it forward” and this person showed me an example of what that really means. So thanks to Sweetwater for being a great example of what a coffee shop could be and to the anonymous coffee gifter, for the coffee and motivation to make similar gestures a part of my regular routine!