Anyone who knows me will know this: I love coffee. I drink coffee often and in excess. Without caffeine, I’m not sure how I would function.

Since leaving home four months ago, proper percolated coffee has been extremely hard (read impossible) to find. In hostels or bed and breakfasts, the free coffee you get is the instant stuff. It was very difficult to get used to, but somehow I developed a taste for it. At restaurants or cafes, the coffee you get comes via an espresso machine – steamed water is forced through pressed coffee grounds producing the drink we know as espresso. If you order a ‘coffee’ at a restaurant or cafe, you will get what is referred to as an ‘Americano’ – the espresso mixed with hot water. Interestingly enough, this term ‘Americano’ comes from the WWII era when American soldiers found the European way of drinking espresso to strong – cafes would mix the espresso with steaming water. Strong, but good – it took me some time, but I began to enjoy the Americano coffee; but, it’s not Folgers in my cup.

Anyway, I woke up this morning to go find the complementary coffee here at the Samay Hostel. Tired, I stumbled up the stairs to the common kitchen – I was elated to find a proper, coffee percolator. Ten minutes later … a taste of home.