Mind blown 🤯
I grew up in the UK, and so of course most of my life I had been a tea drinker. I would start my days with a big mug of milky tea, and usually a few biscuits (for my American readers these are cookies not the gravy covered ones!). In other words I was a true and stereotypical Brit.
I had tried coffee once when I was younger and had hated it. But one of my good friends, another Dave said to me at church one evening 'Why don't you try coffee again, our tastes change as we get older'. I figured it would give us a bit of a laugh to try the bitter coffee...so I poured a cup full of the dark liquid, held it to my mouth and took a big sip. It might have been the half cup of milk I had added to the coffee, or it might have been the 4 sugars I had thrown in...but I enjoyed that coffee so much!
So I started drinking coffee regularly as well as tea, but mostly instant coffee made very weak and I'm not sure my espresso friends on the forums would even call what I had been drinking coffee.
Moving to Romania
When I moved to Romania, one of the things I loved about the country was how friendly everyone was. My friend Mihai, would take me around to people's homes to visit. In a morning we could end up in 3 different people's homes and all of them would serve cakes and coffee. But the thing is, this wasn't the weak instant coffee I was used to drinking! This was thick, black, syrupy espresso.
My first thought was 'where is the rest of my coffee'? My next thought was how strong and bitter it was. But I wanted to be a good guest and be grateful for all these amazing people welcoming me into their homes. So I drank it up, every time. And again, I would fill the tiny cup with as much milk and sugar as I could.
But I started to notice something as time went on, I was enjoying those little tiny cups of coffee more and more. And I was putting in less and less milk & sugar. Slowly a love for espresso was growing!
In 2018 I decided to buy a Nespresso machine. I bought every pod and flavour/strength that I could (hello hyper fixation!). One morning I noticed I was drinking a double espresso with no milk or sugar, and I was enjoying the acidity, and nuances in the smell and taste. And I knew then, it was official, I loved espresso.
Mental health, covid...and espresso?
I have always struggled with my mental health, and you may have seen in my other posts parts of my battle for wellbeing. In October 2019 when I was going through a particularly hard depressive episode, I decided to order a manual espresso machine to replace my well used and loved Nespresso machine. When I ordered it I realised I would need a coffee grinder, oh and I would need some coffee beans!
So I started reading reviews, watching YouTube videos and trying out different beans and trying to workout if I preferred light or dark roast (I'm still trying to work that out).
Since then, delving into the world of espresso and searching for the perfect setup and beans to make what they call the 'God shot', this hobby has really helped me in my mental health journey. Giving me a focus and something fun to do, while going through the vulnerable & at times painful process of therapy, treatment & the up's/down's of the past few years. Especially when Covid happened and there was a lot more free time and most of it at home, it really helped me and was so much fun to be able to try out as much espresso equipment and coffee beans as I could.
That was where the name Java Journeys came from, I have been on a long journey with my mental health, and espresso has been a big part of that journey.
What now?
As I carry on the Java Journey of working on my mental health, and enjoying espresso. I hope to share on here reviews, thoughts and experiences about espresso, coffee and anything related to it.