Circuit Breaker meant closing Bettr Barista’s academy for 2 months. In a previous post, we talked about our pivots and new normals to start offering blended learning, and our trainers found another silver lining: a return to home brewing. These are our trainers’ reflections on their revived love for home brewing during circuit breaker as part of a global map of Coffee over Corona Diaries, showcasing experiences of coffee under lockdowns around the world.
Read on for your trainers’ home brewing techniques and musings!
PAM
For most of the past 9 years, I've had practically no coffee-making equipment at home because I had my coffee at work most days. So every coffee apparatus I owned sits in the coffee school. During this time the Lelit+Breville combination has been the one constant every day. Being able to take the time in the morning to prepare my double-shot cappuccino centers and grounds me with a way that is hard to find in these times. The meditative steps give me a regular routine start to the day that I control 100%, so that I can take on a day/week/time that is in so many ways uncertain, unknown and uncontrollable.
SHAUN
Being at home for longer periods of time during this season has really motivated me to experiment with more than the usual pour over. I've been concocting iced brewed coffee, cold brews and even cold brew teas. I make various coffee and teas in bigger batches so it’s more convenient to just open the fridge door and have a drink ready. That said, nothing beats the usual morning pour-over though.
LYDIA
Coffee remains the quintessential liquid fuel every morning, especially in the current climate where everyone is working from home. I have been working from work for 4 months now, and I do miss a properly-extracted espresso. Make that a double shot long black, my main energy driver every morning before the Coronavirus hit, depriving us of our daily cuppa and conversations with the friendly barista just down the road. I've been using the Moka pot to brew my morning black. For a sweet treat after that heavy meal, try dousing a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream with a fresh Moka pot brew!
CLEMENCE
Coffee has been a mainstay in my career in the last 15 years and often enough I have taken it for granted. Always surrounded and spoiled for choice at work, now with the new norm I have learnt to appreciate it at a whole new level. The background of this picture is the road I take to the bus stop to work. I always dreaded it as it means another long day at work. However, in this period, it's the view I look for after working on my laptop for a long time. It offers so much greenery within a short distance, lots of sun and the canvas of the blue sky. I have also been brewing coffee as the little one watches and learns. We like to start them young. It's one of the many blessings I enjoy in this difficult and unusual period.
GLORIA
Being in the coffee industry, a good and enjoyable cup of coffee has become a daily essential. While brewing and enjoying the cup, I count myself blessed to be able to brew or purchase coffee from local cafes to enjoy this at home. With the coronavirus, I have observed that the industry is changing; embarking on a greater demand of virtual classes and embarking on new opportunities. At the same time, I can't help but to think about the Farmers, Producers and Businesses that are stakeholders in the supply chain, and how they are affected by this World Wide Pandemic. Every cup of coffee brewed brings up more thoughts of what is happening upstream, rather than just the coffee's flavours and extraction. Take joy in every cup you brew and think of those who made it possible!
WAI KIT
I bought this dripper during my South Korea honeymoon trip, and finally I have the chance to use it when brewing coffee at home. Sometimes I think the coronavirus pandemic is a blessing in disguise: it brings me closer to the people and things around me.
THIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE GLOBAL COFFEE OVER CORONA DIARIES MAP.
Hover over the pins to virtually explore the coffee experiences of people on every continent during lockdowns.