Despite the bitterness

 "I don't drink coffee! It taste bitter!" That's what my friend say to me when I offered him a cup of hot coffee. He is right, coffee is bitter! If we remove the quality of bitterness from the coffee, can we still call it coffee? Suprisingly, many people loves coffee, especially today, probably, this bitter drink has became the most loved beverages in the world. As I drink my cup of coffee and start to reflect for a time being, I notice the mysterious paradox between cofee and coffe drinker. If cofee is bitter and elicitly give a negative respond, why people enjoy drinking it, and personally, "why I even drink it in the first place?" Maybe we need to explore and dig deeper things related to coffee to gain some insight and conclusion partaining this question. 

There are three waves of coffee in American as far I concern. First wave is focused on mass-production of coffee. Coffee is kind of drink that help people awake, and get through the tough working days. Very pratical. Coffee is just like a supplement. One of the oldest story and version of the origin of coffee is also related to this, on how coffee helps people to curb the hunger. Coffee enegizes. Second wave, focused more on the quality of the coffee. Coffee shops provides several variations provide syroups, toppings and so on to make coffee looks more fancy, tasty and gripping to the eyes and mouth. The third wave, coffe somehow bring and create community. The new language is born whereby people understoond the detail about the beans, the method, technique and various discussion around the deep world of coffee. 

Personally, these three waves are happening elsewhere and can also perhaps, exhbit the level of our intrest in coffee. Whether we are on the level one, the Drinker. The second level, the Explorer. Or on the third level, The Master. For me myself, within the specturum, I somewhere linger between level one and two. I like to drink coffee for a very pratical reason. Coffee is a helpful stimulant for my brain yet sometimes, I like to try new variants of coffee albeit I prefer a simple black coffee most of the time.

Return to the primary question. Why people loves coffee when coffee is essentially bitter? There are many theories. However what intrest me is the anwer which link to the psychological theory of  Ivan Pavlov called, social conditioning. We drink coffee and have several associations and conditioning from the popular culture around us or the internal testimony of boosted energy through drinking coffee hence, we want it more and more. After we make coffe our daily rituals, it is hard to imagine to live a life without a single cup of coffee. Headache here and there. Some of the reader will understand what I am trying to say completely at this moment. The popular term that is often used to describe this usual condition is called, "addiction" but for me, I prefer the word "habit".

Last but not least. Whenever I drink coffeee, the connection that suddenly comes in my mind is the relation between the biterness of coffee and the bitterness of life. In other ocassions, my friend once asked me, why I drink coffee everyday? My answer is this, "Life is bitter. We need coffee to help us to embrace the bitterness of the word! That is why, I drink coffee. To help me to cope with the reality." My friend cannot help but was smiling and giggling, "Wow, You nail it man!" Actually, it was a joke and I just randomly throwing words. I have no idea what I was saying at that time. Nonetheless, as I ponder again, my reply was actually good, and can bring us to a deeper understanding on life. 

If indeed we can love the biterness of coffe and even so to speak are addicted to it, why cannot this happening as well in our lives in general? If the coffee is bitter and I can love it because it brings good as it provide extra energy, with the very same logic applied, thus, we can love the world, despite the biterness it emit. Beyond any doubt, biterness makes people stronger and grow. This is what Greek believes, gods are silent in our disasters to make us greater, heroes that can tackle the problem on our own, and as one Spanish philosopher by the name of Miguel De Unamuno exquisitely wrote, "suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons."