Respect the bean; the Barista’s Journey.

I became a barista while training to become a barrister. So it’s second year of lawschool, UCDA(Uganda Coffee Development Authority) is conducting University Trainings and I sign up. The training introduced us to the coffee types in Uganda and Coffee tasting. Next was brewing and we were trained on milk frothing, making a cappuccino and many other signatures. And the training ended and you guessed right, I was the Champion. I despise instant coffee like Nescafe and all other funny instant coffee types. To me, Coffee has to be ground.

In Perfect health, I was a Coffee and book Dracula. One story stands out and this was in 2015. My spot was Endiiro, the reason I loved it was because they had a partnership with local farmers and this was great for me. You know how beer lovers stick to a joint, so is with coffee lovers. So on one of the routine check-ins to my Coffee bar,I was reading a daily as I took my capuccino, the coffee shop was unusually empty but for the waiters and a few Coffee goers, my phone rang the ringtone was Cuban Highway by Dave Koz. It was not so loud but I noticed my neighbour turning her neck turning, after the call. The fine young lady walked over, ” Cuban Highway G major Dave did justice to that one, can you please send it to me if you don’t mind, heres my whatsapp number, and can I join you?”.
Trying to absorb all that,I was happy that she liked Western Jazz, so I said, ” oh please you can join, Mwene is my name”..she said, ” oh silly me, my name is _ its what i should have said but that song just got into my head, my apologies for that”..I told her that it was fine as I pulled the chair for her to sit, “Iam waiting for my friends but time is their greatest enemy they never keep it” she said. We talked about music its influence, the movements from South Africa to Senegal. What impressed me about this lady is that she knew about Taylor Swift and equally Yossour Ndour. Then the best part were her comments about the latte, then I cut in, “I think the frothing didn’t whip the milk cream very well”..Wow how do you know all that? You reply, “Well am a barrista and brew coffee so I know about coffee making” Her friends arrived , it was time to go, and as a Sicilian poet I told her, “It was a pleasure meeting you, and the best friend is not one who takes you for coffee but one who makes you coffee” . She smiled “So when are you going to make me coffee?…” The phone rung it was Cuban Highway again and you had to hit the highway again…off you went, the song was sent on whatsapp and she sent an emoticon with the words, received with thanks.

Ever since I got ill, I only take latte as the other signatures are too strong.

So y’all readers, respect the bean and the Coffee bean, for avoidance of doubt