How do you like your coffee?

I think how my husband and I make a pot of coffee is very telling for how each of us live our lives.

This morning my throat is sore. I’m groggy from all the sleep medications I have to take to get an adequate number of hours of sleep. My toddler is running around me, pantless and spilling milk as she goes.

I dump an undetermined amount of coffee beans into the grinder and push the button. I close my eyes and lean into the counter while I listen to the buzz of the beans grinding. I dump the ground coffee into the filter, again no measurement, just whatever feels right for this morning. I push the button and sigh. Almost there, a few more minutes and I’ll have my Cup.

He makes the coffee most mornings. He meticulously measures. He washes it all, sets the timer, and wakes up to his perfect cup. It’s the same every day. Consistently the same taste, and ready at the same time.

When I make it, it is ready whenever I manage to get the pot washed and the button pushed. The amount of coffee varies by my mood and attention to the process. The taste is often either too weak, a milky Lukewarm water with my cream, or too strong, so bold that I feel it burn my stomach as it washes down.

He is calm, calculated, thoughtful. Everything he does takes time and much consideration.

I am rash, responsive, passionate. I want everything and it all done now. I don’t think it through. I’ve never taken the time to learn what measurements make the perfect cup, I just roll the dice. I go bold or not at all.

He doesn’t leap. He likes consistency. He can’t make decisions.

I’d rather accept and deal with the outcome then sit in the unknown.

How do you make your perfect cup?