The first cup of the day

The first cup I make in the morning is for the bar, not for a customer. It is a calibration. I pull a shot and taste it and decide whether anything needs adjusting before the door opens. Usually nothing does. Sometimes the grinder has drifted overnight and I dial it back in.

This is not quality control in the formal sense. It is more like listening. Beatrice has moods and Number Nine has moods and the water coming into the building is slightly different in summer than in winter. The first cup tells me where we are today.

Most mornings it is fine. Occasionally it tells me something is off and I fix it before anyone else notices. That is the point. The first cup is mine, and it is work.