How Traveling Almost Ruined Coffee For Me

You don’t know what coffee is until you have tasted coffee while traveling

Country-hopping this summer brought with it many adventures: experimenting with melted cheeses in Switzerland, riding cramped in a small European car for five hours from Heidelberg to Paris, feeling the warm breeze against my face on the Cliffs of Moher. South America was an unforgettable adventure as well–between learning to tango in Buenos Aires and scaling glaciers in Patagonia, my time was well-spent walking through the streets of the cities. But amidst my travels, there was one constant that crossed every cultural boundary: the need for a caffeine fix.
 

In the moments when I felt out of place or in need of rejuvenation as a tired foreigner, finding a coffee shop was all I needed to do to re-center. The heat of the mug in my hand meant comfort, its aroma inviting and reminiscent of home. The taste of a full-bodied, dark and smooth coffee was the final step needed to achieve complete inner balance.
 

Yet this coffee was unlike my simple cup of Folgers from home; each country had distinctive flavors and brewing methods of coffee.  Brazilian coffee was nothing like Ethiopian or Guatemalan coffee—each had different acidity levels, tasting notes, and roasting methods.
 

The whole process—from the growing of the fruit to the type of machine used to brew the liquid goodness—was the distinguishing factor between an excellent cup of coffee and a mediocre means to a caffeinated end.
 

A big takeaway from my time traveling the world was what my coffee said about me. How I chose to caffeinate said more about my personality than I thought—drinking a quick cup of coffee from a Keurig meant that I preferred efficiency over the quality of the coffee itself.  Longer brewing methods (like a pour-over, Chemex, or French Press) curated a more delicious coffee itself, like its freshness and notes of citrus, chocolate, and honey.

After traveling and living abroad for almost four months, my tastebuds had undergone such dramatic change that returning home seemed both boring and daunting. How would I be able to drink flavorless coffee again after experiencing such an array of coffees while abroad?
 

Finding Atlas Coffee Club made it much easier to return to the states, knowing that I could have exotic, gourmet coffee shipped to my doorstep every month. They even showed me how best to brew my new coffee at home and sent me a postcard that explained how the coffee was grown in that region.

Nothing quite compares to the thrill of traveling to other countries and experiencing new cultures but with Atlas Coffee Club, I actually feel like I’m traveling the world again, one cup at a time.