To Oak

"Where have you been?" Zhu Miao asked curiously.

"'Esse."

"'What?"

Xiang Shu said briskly, "Ethiopia."

What are you going to do there?

Before Zhu Miao asked, Xiang Shu enthusiastically talked about his itinerary in just a few weeks - the journey of looking for beans.

Xiang Shu has had this hobby since a few years ago. He went to coffee bean producing areas and traded directly with coffee farmers to find good beans that were harvested that year.

The growth of coffee beans is affected by many factors, such as rainfall, temperature, insect damage, etc. The coffee beans of each season are different, and the beans that taste good this year may not be available next year. Now more and more baristas I like to go directly to the production area to "find beans".

Ethiopia is one of the largest producers of coffee beans in Africa.Xiang Shu took out his mobile phone while talking, and dug out the photos he had taken during this period of time.

Hundreds of years have passed since shepherds discovered wild coffee beans in Ethiopia's Kafa Forest.Xiang Shu first went into the mountains to look for wild coffee.

He followed the coffee farmers of the local cooperative into the muddy mountains, but the road was blocked by heavy rain, and he even heard the deep roar of wild lions.They found ripe coffee cherries that grew wild in the mountains. These coffee cherries were left unattended, and if no one picked them after they matured, they fell into the soil and grew again and again.

They didn't dare to go deep into the place where no one was there. Before leaving, the heavy rain had just stopped, and the sun covered by dark clouds reappeared. The brilliant sunset spread randomly in this glance through the gaps between the leaves.

No one visits the mountains where the sunset is. If there is coffee there, they will grow on their own and complete the cycle of life in the quiet hundreds of thousands of years.

Next, Xiang Shu went to Yirgacheffe, the most famous coffee producing area in Ethiopia, which is already the place he visited.He ate and slept with local coffee farmers. In order to promote the coffee industry, the local government built a school for the children of local coffee farmers. Xiang Shu taught English there in his spare time.

There is a photo taken for him by someone else. In the photo, his hair has been shaved, and his stubble is turning green in the sun. He is squatting with his shirt off and shirtless, showing his coffee-grown hair that winds from his shoulders to his back. District map tattoos, dark-skinned children surrounded him, clicking on his broad wheat-colored skin, looking for familiar place names.

He also took a lot of photos of coffee beans harvesting and processing. The coffee farmer's rough hands stained by the soil are holding dark red ripe coffee cherries. There is no particular composition and light and shadow to pay attention to, but it contains a love for labor, life and nature. of pure love.

He talked a lot, Zhu Miao couldn't fully understand, but he listened very carefully.Xiang Shu is an excellent sharer. He can tell interesting and exciting stories about each photo. Although the topic is a bit jumpy, he often jumps from here to there at once. His beautiful eyes are really shining.

Zhu Miao listened quietly, and she seemed much more professional when she asked a lot of questions, Xiang Shu also answered them one by one.He took out some samples of coffee beans harvested on this trip, and took a cupping test with Yiling.

Zhu Miao hadn't seen it before, and he watched carefully from the side, helping to pass something from time to time, just to beat him.They ground several samples of soybeans without filtering and brewing. They directly poured the powder into the cup one by one, and poured water at the same time. After a while, they used a spoon to remove the foam and grease on the surface, and smelled the fragrance one by one.

Xiang Shu said: "'You also come and smell it."

Zhu Miao also bent down to smell them one by one like them. He knew that the taste of these beans was a little different, but he couldn't smell any more.

First they smell it, then they taste it with a spoon.

Xiang Shu and Yiling recorded while tasting, Zhu Miao didn't taste the citrus aroma, floral aroma, nutty aroma, creamy aroma, tea taste, etc. they mentioned.

Usually he can be very calm about his ignorance, and no one is demanding on him as a layman, but at this time, when Zhu Miao looked at the two people who were sometimes pondering and sometimes excited, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed, and he could only stand quietly. Beside, out of place.

The cupping test was over, everything was packed, Yi Ning went to the bathroom, Xiang Shu stroked his short-shaved hair as if he was not used to it.

He has good facial features, deep contour, eyes in the shape of peach petals, thick and black eyebrows, high nose bridge, sharp eyebrow arch and jaw line, handsome and soft hair when he was long, but now he looks sharp when he is shaved short.

Seeing Zhu Miao looking at him, Xiang Shu said, "'Aren't you used to seeing it? It will grow back after a few months."

Zhu Miao suddenly asked, "Is coffee difficult to learn?"

Xiang Shu said: "It is not difficult to learn if you are willing."

"How long will it take to learn to rush like you?"

Xiang Shu said with a smile: "Everyone brews differently. Even if it is the same beans, the same water and the same tool, the taste of each person's brewing is different——"

"Every cup of coffee is a gift waiting to be unwrapped."

Xiang Shu said so.

Zhu Miao blinked, half understanding. It turns out that the barista is the one who packs the gifts.

Whether Xiang Shu is present or not, the atmosphere of the entire coffee shop is very different.In fact, there is not much difference. After all, when he is there, if Yiling is there, then he is just sitting behind the bar playing with his mobile phone, or smoking and reading in the yard.

But Zhu Miao felt very different.

There were no customers in the store, so Yi Ning waved his hand and asked him to go to the second floor to do his homework, but Zhu Miao came back from skipping class and didn't bring a schoolbag or anything, so he could only pretend to do it with a few textbooks that he didn't bring to school. Turn over like this.Fortunately, no one asked him why he skipped class, otherwise he would not know how to answer.

Suddenly, the book in Zhu Miao's hand was picked up.

Xiang Shu leaned against the table, casually flipping through his books.Zhu Miao's textbook is cleaner than his face, snow-white, and the occasional handwriting is trembling curves accidentally drawn while falling asleep in class with a pen.

A crumpled report card fell out of the pages.

Before Zhu Miao had time to snatch it back, Xiang Shu had already seen it.He glanced at it and asked, "Didn't you say that your grades are very good? This is not good no matter how you look at it."

"The grades are very good" was what Zhu Miao said casually in order to apply for the job.In fact, Zhu Miao is still a long way from "good grades".

"'You don't seem to be qualified for a few subjects." Xiang Shu said coolly.

Zhu Miao angrily snatched back the report card, put it back inside the page, and muttered: "There is a lot of room for improvement."

Xiang Shu took a glass of ice water in his hand, drank a couple of sips, and said, "Let's learn about coffee after you understand the culture class first."

Zhu Miao lowered her head, flipped through his book as if venting her anger, and swore, "Don't look down on people."

"By the way," Xiang Shu said, "I'll pay you."

He clicked on WeChat, passed Zhu Miao's friend application, and transferred the money to him neatly.

Zhu Miao opened it to see, 2000 yuan.

The salary is very low, but as a part-time worker for a coffee layman like Zhu Miao, this is already a sky-high salary.

Xiang Shu said: "Eat more, you are too thin."

For a moment, Zhu Miao felt that he was not receiving a salary, but more like receiving pocket money, and he almost didn't say "Thank you Dad".

The author says:

The knowledge and stories about coffee in this article are all based on "Specialty Coffee Science" and "The Bean Seeker". These two books are quite interesting, but they are professional. If you are not a coffee practitioner, you may not be able to read them. I just skip to read them. of.