Remember… "Coffee religion"

Every Sunday morning, a few of his friends would come to his rented room to drink tea and coffee. When he saw everyone coming, he spread a mat on the floor, brought it to the stove, put in some coal, and lit the fire. I helped him bring down the thermos, the tea set, some coffee filters, glass cups, and a bowl of sugar. I also brought out the packet of Do Huu B'lao tea and the packet of ground coffee he usually bought at Tan Dinh market from the bookshelf.

He poured the water into the thermos and then heated another pot. He carefully rinsed the tea set with boiling water and then put the tea in. When the first pot on the stove had melted, he used boiling water to rinse the filter and cups and then put the ground coffee into each filter. When the water started to boil, he poured the remaining boiling water from the thermos into each filter, but only poured enough to cover the filter plate. He said that doing so would allow the coffee powder to expand evenly, so that when the water boiled a second time, the full flavor of the coffee would be released.

The tea was ready, he poured a cup for each of us and raised his glass to start the peaceful morning. While waiting for each drop of coffee to fall, we enjoyed the tea and discussed books. He said that tea ceremony is the process of enjoying tea and discussing the philosophy of life. We are sitting here not only practicing tea ceremony but also "coffee ceremony". The basic rituals of tea ceremony are "Harmony - Respect - Purity - Tranquility", we have them all. I interrupted him saying that it was not enough, because we lacked... a beautiful woman. We laughed happily.

Thinking back to the old days, the way of making and enjoying coffee was also a kind of religion, because sitting there there was only friendship, without any trace of greed, anger, or ignorance. If I were a few thirty years younger, I would start a "religious coffee" business and believe that many people would support it, because everyone wants to have a moment of peace in this busy life.

(Entry to the contest "Impressions of Vietnamese coffee and tea" under the program "Honoring Vietnamese coffee and tea" for the 2nd time, 2024 organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).