Lake Coffee

Coffee at the Lake is really rather strange. My mother used to talk about how, when we were kids, the tea at the lake (different lake, but same idea) always tasted better than it did at home. My mom was not a huge fan of the lake, (especially when it poured with rain for the two weeks we spent there one summer) but she does know a good cup of tea.

Right. Coffee. Lake. One year (last year or the one before) I took a notion to upgrade the coffee at the lake by buying, in order, a Moka coffee pot and then an Aeropress coffee maker. My mother-in-law generally just makes it in a perk pot. You know, half a cup of ground coffee in the filter part… let it come to the boil and then perk for 7 minutes – as if, somehow, 8 minutes of boiling coffee would make it terrible and 6 minutes wouldn’t be enough. Reminds me of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they are reading instructions about the Holy hand Grenade of Anioch from the Book of Armaments (4:16-20)

“Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, “Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals … Now did the Lord say, “First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”

Now I’m REALLY getting off topic. Perk coffee sucks at the best of times.

But at the lake not only is it palatable, it’s really rather good. In fact, my sister-in-law, who is nearly as much of a coffee snob as I am (OK, probably not possible, but…) prefers the perk coffee to my Aeropress coffee or the Moka.

I was out at the lake this weekend opening up the cabin. Setting up the water; pulling out solar cells; general spring cleaning… That sort of thing. Betty made some coffee from last year’s coffee – it had sat in the cabin over the winter. Since August at least – or 9 months.

Wasn’t that good. What they say about fresh coffee is absolutely true. But here’s the kicker. It was perfectly drinkable, even black, and I was yet again amazed at how good a cup of coffee can be at the lake.

Must be magic. Or the water. Possibly both.