Coffee & Some Danish.

Over recentweeks, I have become the weeniest bit obsessed with coffee.  Personally, I blame the time ofyear.  Gazing, bleary-eyed into mymorning mug, the darkness of the winter is reflected perfectly in the slowblack sloe black pitch of my early cuppa Joe (incidentally did you know that itIS a ‘cuppa’ Joe and not a ‘cup of’ Joe as the GIs stationed in Britain adoptedour slangy way of saying ‘cuppa’ tea and used it for their coffee).  It seems perverse given theassociations of speed that we give to a shot of caffeine but I think thatslowness and coffee are made for each other.  I had a wonderful lesson in the benefits of slowcoffee-making given to me a couple of months ago by Elliot Wallis fromMonkshood Coffee. 

This is notthe only reason for my coffee compulsion. I was recently bought the box set of first series of The Killing.  If you haven’t seen it then you mustbecause it is a brilliant Danish drama about a murder investigation.  It was made a bit famous because of thelead detective’s love of knitwear. However, the series really should be made famous for it’s infatuationwith the Arabica bean because if there’s one thing that they do a lot of in TheKilling,it’s drink coffee.  If you thoughtwe love coffee what with all our Costa this and Starbucks that then you need tohave a word with yourself.  TheDanes drink coffee like we stand in queues, except they do it better.  Hardly anyone in The Killing has any alcohol, thereare only a couple of times in the 24 hour-long episodes where we see peopledrinking booze but coffee is consumed all the time. It is the blood that pumpsthrough the arteries of Copenhagen and is used as a plot driver, a prop for theaction and a metaphor all at once. One of the lead characters is a politician who drinks coffee withglorious delight as he fires half of his cabinet, each sacking punctuatedanother ruthless sip.  Each tablein The Killing, whether corporate or family, has another shiny devicefor warming coffee, or blending coffee or enjoying coffee in some new andwondrous way.

I apologise here and now to anyonewho comes into contact with me over the next few weeks because this coffeefixation is not going anywhere.  Ihave just received season two of The Killing and am currently wading through series one of the Danish political drama, Borgen.  Then after that there’s a new series called The Bridge and after thatthere’ll be time for Borgen 2.  Then Borgen 3. Right now I talk about not much else and I am aware how boring it hasbecome.  I am truly, truly sorry.  Tak.