SMELL
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PROOF MAGAZINE
26
I sheepishly wipe the foam from mouth and
nod, “yes, please”, eager for more. Continuing
our conversation, I hesitantly asked about his
opinion on iced coffee. Having experienced
condemnation from many a coffee connoisseur,
over my preference for the iced version of coffee,
I completely expected a similar reaction.
However, to my surprise (and delight!),
Dominic simply laughs and says quite
offhandedly, “oh iced coffee is great.”
Usually, for lovers of coffee, there is often
an element of snobbery – tell a coffee drinker
that you can’t stand your coffee black and you
will probably be told that you don’t really like
coffee then. But Dominic is not a coffee snob,
though he would have all rights to be.
He thinks that the beauty
of coffee is in the “eye of the
beholder”, so to speak. “Coffee
means a lot of different things
to different people- whether it
is an espresso, a cappuccino or
frappe, once the coffee is made
well, then the choice is yours,”
says Dominic.
However, what Dominic is, is a self-professed
milk snob. For Dominic, much of the goodness
of coffee has to do with the type and quality of
ingredients used in making it. Fresh, whole milk
is the only type of milk that coffee should be made
with, according to Dominic (no skimmed or 2%
milk, please!), and at Wyndhams, one of their
primary goals is ensuring that Barbadians
learn to appreciate coffee in its entirety.
“Most Bajans love to go buy their instant
Nescafé coffees because they are simple and
convenient. But imagine having an amazing
cup of coffee every day, that costs about the
same as your cup of instant coffee, but the only
caveat is that it takes a little more time and
a little more care,” asserts Dominic.
Coffee drinkers everywhere could
potentially learn how to make
a delicious cup of coffee
every day with a
simple trip to
Wyndhams. There, they have the tools and
knowledge to show you how to become a barista
at home, and make a quality cup of coffee.
“You could equate it to cooking– for example,
you could cook an egg in a microwave or
you could cook it on the stove or in an oven,”
Dominic comments, “Obviously it will take a
little longer in the oven but it will taste much
better than throwing it in the microwave.”
Coffee is the same thing, he argues. “You
could throw some instant coffee and hot water
into a cup, or you could spend five minutes
brewing your coffee correctly and it will taste
amazing,” he states, “But that is what we are
here to do. We want to help people drink better
coffee and it’s what we care about. Coffee is an
amazing product and once you know what you’re
doing, and can make it well – it’s beautiful.”
So, therein lies the story of how I fell in love
with coffee. My simple interview on the coffee
culture in Barbados took me on an unexpected
journey; a journey to understanding coffee a
bit better, and discovering a drink that is much
tastier, and more meaningful than I ever realised.
Now, I can’t swear that I will never take my
vanilla latte in a to-go cup ever again, but now
when I have my coffee, I will try to take a bit
more time with it. I will sip it slowly, take a breath
and enjoy it, because, as Dominic would say,
“Coffee is not just a drink, it’s
an experience.”