The Comfort of a Cortado
The friend who doesn't speak but is always there.
Coffee is a comforting hot or cold drink that elevates the our heart rate and our brain function. While most commonly enjoyed in the morning, it can also be used as a late afternoon pick-me-up running the risk of being up all night, coffee is versatile. But what differentiates Starbucks from your local coffee shop? Isn’t coffee still coffee regardless of where I buy it from? No, no it is not.
Specialty coffee is a place dedicated to making every single shot of espresso, every pour over, every tea, every matcha, any beverage they offer, the greatest experience that you have ever had. While at a Dunkin or Starbucks, it is commercialized and void of passion; the sole goal is to get it to the customer as quick as possible. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for Dunkin or Starbucks, but the experience and quality of specialty coffee is far superior.
The cortado, pictured above, is my go to steamed milk and espresso beverage. A cortado is two ounces of milk and two ounces of espresso. At the time of writing this I am currently sipping on a cortado, steamed milk in my mustache, enjoying every slurp I can get of it. Well steamed milk is what differentiates the small business coffee shop compared to a specialty coffee shop, and the beautiful art your barista makes is not purely aesthetic. Rather, it is a side effect of the quality of milk steaming. This brings the skill and dedication of quality into the barista’s hands, this is what brings coffee shops into the upper echelon they all strive to achieve. Something about the warmth of a cortado brings comfort to my soul on a hard day, centering me to the present moment with every sip. Telling a story from the first sip to the last, craving another after finishing the masterpiece you experienced. Coffee always breaks down the walls of those you experience it with, whether it is a classic drip or a boujee cortado, coffee brings people together in a special way.
Coffee’s caffeine qualities are a stimulant to the brain, making people feel more comfortable in the process of drinking it. With people feeling more comfortable while enjoying their favorite cup of joe, this creates a type of community very unique to coffee. My favorite shop in the area is Composition Coffee House in West Palm Beach, this shop has everything to make a delicious cup of coffee that will be so memorable you have to come back just to go again. Coffee has created many friendships that I love, while my cortado has always been there as my comforter along the way.