I don’t know about you, but I hate working out. I hate going to the gym. I hate using exercise equipment. I hate reps. I’ve never liked working out. Some people seem to love the whole experience, but I just don’t get it. It’s boring, miserable, and hard – there is literally nothing to like about it.
There is only one problem. I love trials biking, which takes strength. When I first started trials biking, I hadn’t done anything to build strength for years. Nor had I done any sort of exercise, really. Not a great health combination at nearly 50 years old!
The more my trials riding progressed, the more apparent it became that I needed to do something to build strength, especially in my arms. While I still don’t go to the gym or use any weightlifting equipment, I did start doing pushups several times a week for the past year. I do several sets of slow pushups (count to 5 going down, hold for a 2-count, then count to five back up), followed by several sets of “regular” pushups. That pretty much sums up my strength-building regimen so far. And I can’t stand it – I hate every moment of it! But… it has absolutely made a difference in my riding.
Making matters more frustrating, I have had to stop a few times for weeks or even months at a stretch due to injuries or illness. Each time that has happened, it seems to take longer to re-build lost strength. This year in particular, I had an intercostal muscle strain that set me back two months over the summer, and then about a month of illness this winter. After 5 weeks of pushups, I’ve barely made any progress and I’m significantly behind where I was just a few months ago.
But you know what? I keep doing it. I track my progress with a habit tracker app and force myself to do these damn pushups three times a week (along with stretches and exercises to heal and prevent further injury of various things). It’s a struggle, every time. I get up 30 minutes earlier than I would otherwise, so I can do them in the morning, no excuses. I constantly want to quit. It’s hard work, does not feel good, and just generally unpleasant. But I do it anyway. Why? How? Because I keep that vision in my mind of my goal to become progressively better at trials biking. I know if I don’t, I’m going to struggle even more than usual when I ride, or could get hurt by not having the strength necessary. By making it a habit, tracking when I do it, and focusing on my “why”, I keep myself motivated to keep doing it, even when I just want to give up. This is the key – throughout the physical pain and mental struggle, visualize what it is you want to achieve.
Ewww! This is nasty! How can anyone drink this stuff?!? That is what played through my mind the first time I tasted coffee. Little did I know that in just a few years, I’d be hooked on the stuff. Initially the caffeine stimulant was the draw – to stay awake during weekends and late nights doing homework and studying for exams in college. After a while I became accustomed to the taste – mostly just tolerating it early on, flooding it with cream to help mask the bitterness, but eventually switching to unadulterated black coffee. Since then I have been searching for the perfect cup of coffee. Drinking coffee has also become a daily ritual that mixes the stimulant and flavor with positive psychological feelings and social behaviors.
Coffee Beans – the Essential Ingredient
Obviously, the coffee bean is the most critical ingredient to the perfect cup of coffee. Coffee bushes are grown from coffee beans, which are seeds. Once coffee bushes reach maturity, they grow ‘cherries’ – the fruit that contains the coffee bean as the seed. After ripe cherries are harvested, the coffee beans are separated from the fruit pulp and skin and then fermented. Next, the beans are dried and milled to remove moisture and fruit remnants, respectively, and sorted by size and quality. At this point in the process, coffee beans are called ‘green coffee’, a state that can retain flavor qualities for an extended period while the beans are sold and distributed.
Roasting is the final step prior to grinding. The beans are heated until their internal temperature exceeds 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This process, called pyrolysis, releases the oils that give coffee its characteristic flavor and aroma. Beans that are roasted longer result in a darker roast, though it’s somewhat more complicated than that. Upon completion of heating the beans to their desired roasting characteristics, the hot beans are doused with water for rapid cooling.
After coffee beans are roasted, they begin losing their flavor, with ground beans having a shorter shelf life. For this reason, all else being equal, fresh ground beans deliver a better cup of coffee.
Brewing: Function vs. Flavor
When I was just a young boy, my parents used an electric percolator to brew coffee. By the time I began drinking coffee, the percolator was replaced by an automatic drip coffee maker. Until just a couple years ago, this was the brewing method of choice, though I became increasingly frustrated by the resulting quality from the drip-brewed process. First, depending on who brewed the coffee, you could end up with tasteless brown water or disgusting sludge. Second, unless you drink it immediately, brewed coffee sits in the pot on the warming burner, succumbing to a nasty and thoroughly unappetizing ‘burnt’ flavor. Honestly, that just utterly ruins coffee. To avoid burnt coffee, I spent several years putting the auto drip-brewed coffee right into an insulated carafe (Thermos); this approach was only a minor improvement, since the coffee flavor still diminishes with time in the Thermos. The only consolation is that it was better than microwaving cold coffee (just the thought gives me shivers… I’d rather drink tepid coffee than destroy it in the microwave).
A number of factors impact the flavor of coffee, including the quality of the water. I’ve had some pretty terrible cups of coffee, for example, using heavily chlorinated city water. Our house uses well water, which has a significant iron content. Despite using a water softener, we can still taste the iron in the water. Using an activated charcoal water filter has definitely helped improve the flavor. We started filtering our water several years ago, right about the same time that we started a new brewing method: the French press.
A nearly perfect cup of coffee, complete with natural coffee foam
In reading this blog post, you might think I’m a complete coffee snob, but honestly, I’m not. Mostly we drink pre-ground, big name brands like Folgers and Maxwell House. Surprisingly, the French press actually made these coffees taste pretty good – infinitely better than brewing the same grounds with an auto-drip maker, and much better than I ever expected. Using the French press also revealed another bonus: the delicious coffee foam that embellishes the surface of the coffee liquid when you get the water temperature and steeping time just right! It takes a little more effort to brew coffee in a French press, but the difference compared to the auto drip approach is obvious. The challenge with the French press is generally making sure that the water temperature is perfect: too hot and the coffee is very bitter; not hot enough and the flavor is lacking. Due primarily to the time and effort involved, I use the French press primarily on weekends. While I haven’t found the perfect cup of coffee yet, the French press has allowed me to come close.
While I was a slow adopter, we eventually got a Keurig coffee maker (as a gift) and began using one at work. I was resistant at first based on a combination of the cost per cup as well as articles I had read about potential health issues related to using the K-cups. Our solution was to purchase reusable K-cup filters (for use at home and at work) so we can just use whatever coffee grounds we want. This method is actually not too bad – not optimal, but certainly not bad, and definitely better (and faster) than the autodrip. I use the Keurig machine to brew coffee for my morning commute to work. Lately, I’ve even brewed a second morning cup that I bring into work in an insulated travel mug – it stays warm for quite a while, and is still halfway decent.
Recently my wife read some articles indicating that coffee brewed without using paper filters can lead to elevated cholesterol levels. We figured it might be time to find an alternative to using the French press, so we bought a pour-over coffee brewing kit and some paper filters. From what I’d read, I was expecting to get the perfect cup of coffee using the pour-over brew. After tasting my first cup of pour-over brewed coffee using the paper filters, I realized that in addition to filtering out the chemicals responsible for raising cholesterol levels, the paper removes the best flavor characteristics and adds flavor of the paper itself – yuck! Sorry, that is just not happening. I’ve since tried pour-over brewing my coffee using the metal filter that came with the kit. It’s definitely better than using a paper filter (anything is better than that!), but it is difficult to get the right water temperature and rate of pour-over. I’ve made some delicious cups of coffee with the mesh filtered pour-over brew, but I’ve also had some that were definitely sub-par. Also, while I’d make the sacrifice for a great cup of coffee, the pour-over brewing method is a pain in the ass: you have to painstakingly dribble the hot water into the grounds using a slow circular motion. It literally takes as much time as just waiting for the French press to steep, but with a less consistent result.
I’ve also begun experimenting with cold brewed coffee this month. The draw with the cold brew method is the bold flavor without the acid. I’d never been a fan of cold or iced coffee, but I have to say that cold brewed coffee is actually pretty good. The downside is that it takes 12-48 hours to brew, so you need to plan well in advance. You also need to be careful that you don’t overdose on it since it’s easy to gulp it down, unlike a piping hot cup of coffee. The cold brew method does not yield the perfect cup of coffee, but it definitely has it’s place. For example, the cold brewed coffee is great on ice cream. I’m sure I will experiment with other coffee-flavored foods as well – maybe brownies, for instance. Okay, now my mouth is watering…
