The Calm Before Slightly Less Calm

It's an early day, mostly because I forgot my computer in the office and needed to take it to a 9AM client meeting. I stopped by the office just long enough to grab the machine and a travel mug of coffee for the bus ride out.

Now, I know this is a Starbucks machine, but hear me out. I love this thing. My last company had a Flavia machine, which is really just an obscenity with it's little pouches, 7 second brew times, and dozens of horrid flavors accompanied by "strength" ratings that mock real coffee. And by mock, I mean pull down its pants in the schoolyard, tie it to the flagpole, and steal its girlfriend.

This machine, however you feel about Starbucks coffee, grinds real, fresh beans, and takes about a minute to brew you an actual cup of coffee. Sure, it has a bit of the bitter flavor that plagues the 'Bucks, but it is so far beyond other office coffee machines that I'm a big fan.

What's funny is that this machine (not the exact one) is one of the reasons that Seattle seemed like a good place to move. When I was out here a few years ago for work, the company I was at had one of these machines. It struck me that these machines and the coffee service that supplied them was not cheap, and that someone was taking this pretty seriously to spend the money on it. I spent a bunch of time with the people who worked there and we went to a bunch of restaurants and I realized that people out here took their food and drink pretty hardcore. That's a dealmaker/breaker for me, so I'm pretty glad that's been working out so far.

Anyway, that's what it is, yo.