Coffee fiends: Aficionados treat the beverage as a way of life
By Spencer Pratt
Feb. 23, 2012 7:54 a.m.
For some, coffee is not just a hot, caffeinated beverage. It is a gourmet drink that can be tailored in multiple ways to satisfy the human palate.
Espresso, for instance, is a coffee drink produced by just one of many extraction methods, and for Alessandro Duranti, UCLA’s dean of social sciences, a perfect espresso is observable by its particularity.
“The first thing about espresso is that it has to be in a cup that is the right size ““ it has to be an espresso cup. It can’t be too big. It has to be porcelain, and it has to be warm. If it isn’t warm, the espresso becomes cold right away,” Duranti said.
He also added that the espresso should have a patina on top, resembling a thin layer of bronzed caramel. Duranti, who grew up in Italy, keeps an espresso machine in his office in Murphy Hall. It is a testament to his espresso commitment.
“I grew up with espresso. I was drinking coffee when I was 10,” Duranti said. “I know in America that’s a terrible thing to say, but I grew up in Rome, so I’m used to having espressos.”
Childhood coffee consumption seems to be a prevalent characteristic among coffee aficionados. Joseph Hap, a fourth-year biochemistry student, was hooked on the drink when he had his first sip in first grade.
“My mom got me started on it. Just little sips in the car on the way to school, then it just developed into a full-blown coffee habit,” Hap said.
Hap’s academic field has also informed his understanding of the drink. He wields chemical principles to dissect a good cup of coffee. Moreover, he uses a Chemex extractor at home, which, according to Hap, produces an unbeatable flavor because of its special filters.
“It’s way more flavorful because you have all the aromatic compounds that slip through (in normal drip machines). Regular coffee filters absorb some of the aromatic oils. The lipids and aromatic oils … really give the coffee a fuller body.”
But brewing coffee at home or at work is not the only way coffee addicts satisfy their cravings. According to Jesse Mosqueda, a fourth-year history student and former Starbucks employee, Starbucks makes some of the best coffee around. And that’s probably because Starbucks has priority pick for coffee beans around the world, Mosqueda said.
“I was always told … by the company that (it gets) the first choice in beans. They have top priority when choosing beans from the farmers. That’s why they get the best beans,” Mosqueda said.
Moreover, self-proclaimed coffee snobs who are vastly knowledgeable about the drink take the hobby as seriously as anyone else who commits themselves to an activity such as knitting or, in Duranti’s case, even car restoration. Duranti has an espresso machine at home that requires the same amount of attention that a vintage car needs.
“At home, I have a different machine. It’s called a Pasquini, made by an Italian guy who migrated to the States in the ’50s,” Duranti said. “It’s more like an Alfa Romeo ““ you really have to work with it to get it out right. It’s not automatic.”
Duranti said he gets it serviced once a year, in the same way a car adorer would take a muscle car into the mechanic.
But everyone does not need to take their coffee as seriously as they take their profession ““ or their schoolwork, for that matter. In college, the beverage is especially ubiquitous as a cultural phenomenon, according to Mosqueda.
“I would say that it plays a big social role in college, and I’ve noticed that people just go (to coffee shops) whether they like coffee or not,” Mosqueda said.
“Even in my classes it has an important function. … In my seminar when things get dragged out for quite a while, we always break for coffee. So it plays an important role culturally, in the academic environment specifically.”
