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Goodmorning Hive

What is a better way, to start the third day with black magic in a cup, aka coffee?  I started to drink coffee at around the age of 22, so not that old (or young), I have no idea what a normal age is to start drinking coffee. But like many of us coffee drinkers, the first cup is going to be one you gonna remember for the rest of your life. But that's probably a story for another time. What I'm trying to say with this, is that I've been a consumer of coffee for about 12 years now. 12 years! 

If my average coffee consumption was 1 cup a day, that would mean I would've drank over 4000 cups of coffee. If a cup contains 120ml of liquid, that would mean that my body has been working with, and processing about 480.000 ml of coffee. This is a low number since there were days when I would -only- drink coffee (10 cups a day) and smoke cigarettes. Eww... don't bring me back to those memories.

That was the intro for the 3rd day of the 30-day challenge, click on this link if you want to read a bit more about the [The not-so-ordinary ordinary items challenge](https://peakd.com/challenge/@rubencress/the-not-so-ordinary-ordinary-item-challenge-30-days).
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This challenge made me realize I've been probably drinking over half a million milliliters of coffee. Luckily I don't add sugar to my coffee... I don't even want to know those. 

So, is coffee good or bad for you? With everything, managing a balanced input/output is always the best way to appreciate all the benefits. Truth is, I happen to suck at managing a healthy balance between anything I do in life, but luckily, I have @lackofcolor around me to keep me in check. 

I used to drink a sickening amount of coffee per day. 10 cups were nothing. But on the other hand, coffee didn't help either. It was just this black magic liquid I poured down my throat to have something hot in my stomach. 

This abusive behavior has led me to think more about my consumption and what it would and could do to my body long-term. I probably would never have given it a good thought otherwise. 

This thought started to grow and developed over time. It went hand-in-hand with my "Quality over Quantity" mentality, so I had no problem adjusting to it. I was more open to a change for the better. It's pretty important to be more aware of what we use to fuel our bodies. Do we even care what we pour into ourselves? Ah, hmmm, a very depressive thought. Luckily, some high-quality beans are healthier and do make a change. In taste, senses, and the illusion of doing something good seems to be a good thing for the ego.

One thing I remember from @blind-spot visiting me was that he noticed and enjoyed the cup of coffee that I gave him. You see; you almost forget _how_ good things are when you just start, but they fade away over time as we pay less and less attention to them.

If we think about coffee, we think about coffee beans and farmers who harvest and roast these beans. I  don't know about you, but sometimes I think about wages and pay rates for the honest work of these farmers. I also think about coffee machines. Which one to use, and how durable it is? How much it costs versus the quality that you get? 

Together with @lackofcolor, we chose one of the "best" and "affordable" coffee makers we could find. _Even though I slightly miss my older machine which got a lot less messy_. It is an investment for sure, but honestly; if you're still drinking Senseo; do yourself a favor and get a frigging mean bean machine. It will either save you money OR you could upgrade the quality of the coffee that you drink. Which is beneficial for your health -and- it just tastes way better.

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### Dark, Medium & Light Roast

_"**Light roasts tend to have more delicate yet complex flavor profiles than dark roasts**. Dark roasts tend to have deep but simple flavors due to some of the initial flavors of the beans being lost or changed during the roasting process. Dark roast is sometimes described as tasting more bitter than light roast."_ - Coffeebean.com

Honestly, I have no idea which one is healthier, but there are some studies about it. 
If you're a coffee drinker, you might find [this article](https://www.health.com/nutrition/light-dark-roast-coffee-which-is-healthier) interesting.  I used to drink Dark Roast, without even knowing there were other variants. Today, I drink mostly lightly roasted, but sometimes blend the beans with some dark roasted beans.
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![](https://i.imgur.com/hzdN2pg.jpg)
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![](https://i.imgur.com/0B7zz8m.jpg)
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### The creative process
You can photograph a cup of coffee in so many ways, but I kind of feel like slacking a bit with this one. I just placed the cup of coffee on the table with the same fabric I used to photograph the [silverware](https://www.peakd.com/challenge/@rubencress/day-1-silverware). As I was looking through the viewfinder of my camera, I couldn't help but notice these bubbles of the cream together with the hot steam that caused the appearance of droplets on the glass. I just took a few shots and thought it looked nice. Not too slick, just nice for a lifestyle photograph. 
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### Technical details
<sub>
  <table>
  <tr>
    <td><b><sub>Camera</sub></b></td>
    <td><sub>Sony A7 MARK II</sub></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b><sub>Lens</sub></b></td>
    <td><sub>Sigma 105mm f/2.8</sub></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b><sub>Shutterspeed</sub></b></td>
    <td><sub>1.3"</sub></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b><sub>Aperture</sub></b></td>
    <td><sub>f/13.0</sub></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><b><sub>ISO</sub></b></td>
    <td><sub>80</sub></td>
  </tr>
  </table>
 </sub>

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### About the challenge
<sub>Photograph and write a little bit about 30 ordinary items that I used a lot in 2022. You can read more about the challenge, and join yourself <a href="https://peakd.com/challenge/@rubencress/the-not-so-ordinary-ordinary-item-challenge-30-days">here</a>. This challenge is just a little experiment.</sub>
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### Do you start your day with coffee?
There are a few days that I don't start my day with coffee. I'm trying to be a bit more responsible these days with drinking my coffee by limiting myself to 3-4 cups maximum a day. Most of the time, it is easy, but sometimes I fail and already have my 3rd cup around 11 AM. These times are usually when I'm super focused on work, or have a lot of stuff to do. Something else to think about.

I hope you enjoy the posts I've been making during this challenge so far. It's nice to see results every day. It just makes me feel productive and that makes me feel good in general. Doing and finishing something on the same day. 

Cheers,
Ruben