The Bloom — coffee

As coffee devotees, we all know there’s a lot going on in our cups. There in the deepest dark, notes of chocolate and fruit, nut and spice, both bitter and sweet swirl together in a mélange of epicurean wonder so profound that no other beverage can compete. And, of course, all that flavor comes with the boost provided by our favorite fuel, the celebrated compound called caffeine. In a word, perfect. Caffeine gives coffee its zoom, and coffee gives it to us. Yet the question remains: Just how exactly does it work this black magic? The story is all in...

Coffee is energy and inspiration in liquid form and a potent endurance-feeding fusion of focus and stimulus that feeds our muse in many ways. That’s why we think it’s the go-to necessity for almost anything on our calendars. Still, there’s one daily activity that coffee devotees still aren’t sure should come with a cup, and we hear the question all the time: Is it okay to mix coffee with exercise?  Grab your travel mug. Coffee is not only an acceptable part of a daily exercise routine, it can actually help you take your body where you want it to go....

We drink the sweet essence of the sacred bean in every season and for a wealth of reasons. It is solace and sustenance, the force that renews and reinvigorates both body and mind to bring focus to our days and the moments within them. In this, there is much power and possibility, and when we take that first sip, we are inviting this energy into our lives to work its magic. Yet for all of its many capacities to illuminate, we rarely tap into what is at once coffee’s most obvious and most overlooked potential. We don’t really consider it...

When we count all the many ways that coffee and the people who provide it make our world a happier place, we usually get a human score. A roaster paying more to impoverished growers. A café employing ex-cons. A coffee maker making good on its promise to help kids with disabilities. But the good that pours from our collective cup doesn’t always end up percolating down to people. Lately, our canine friends have been getting a boost from the coffee community, and that’s a great thing, too. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Until we extend our circle of compassion to all...