Coffee Shop Journal

It was a dark and stormy night. It really was, and I’ve been waiting for years to write that line! So it was a dark and stormy night and we were flying in the turbulence over New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts again, back to New Hampshire. Our plane last night flew in an up and down and side to side holding pattern all over New England. It was then, on our second to last tour of the Northeast, that I was blessing my coffee cupping experience at Jeremy’s Starbucks. I do believe Jeremy saved my life — or at least my dignity.

You see, just before we walked out the door to the airport (after a seven hour delay!), I spied the little sample coffee bags of the beans we had tasted at the coffee cupping yesterday. Jeremy had given David and me the Arabian Mocha and the Gazebo blends to take home. Thinking that the beans could save me from having to run into Starbucks first thing in the morning up here, I threw them in my carry on. That’s what saved me.

The little boy across the aisle did not agree with our holding pattern. His stomach rebelled. And then my nose rebelled. And then my stomach began a little dance.

I reached for my carry on to get the little travel blanket I keep there, thinking to cover my nose. That’s when it hit me…the sweet, complex and oh-so-heavenly aroma of Jeremy’s beans. It permeated through my carry on, it seeped into my blanket. It floated out like a whisper of Eden itself. David and I both dived for the bag and opened the little bags of beans, the better to smell them. We remained happily sniffing until the plane pulled up to the taxi way. What comfort. What joy. What salvation!

So file this under travel tips or coffee tips: the aroma of coffee can mask unpleasant travel odors and soothe an upset brain and tummy at the same time.

And just because my brain works this way, let your worship and praise also be a fragrant offering to the king of kings, pleasant to smell and worthy of his amazing grace.