More Than a Fix: Why Coffee Deserves the Same Love as Wine

We romanticize wine. We swirl it in stemmed glasses, admire the color, speak reverently of vintages and vineyards, brag about terroir, and describe flavor in poetic terms. We give wine our attention — and it earns our respect.

But coffee?

Coffee often gets tossed in a to-go cup and slammed down like a Monday morning apology. It’s a pit stop, a habit, a jolt. It’s rarely treated as something to experience.

And yet, it should be.

Coffee Is Just as Complex — If Not More

Here’s what many don’t realise: coffee contains over 800 aromatic and volatile compounds, compared to roughly 200 in wine. That’s right — coffee out-aromas wine, hands down. Source: Clarke, R. J., & Vitzthum, O. G. (2001). Coffee: Recent Developments.

These compounds contribute to the astonishing range of flavors and aromas you can find in a single cup — from stone fruit and citrus to dark chocolate, toasted nuts, and even florals like jasmine or rose.

And just like wine, coffee’s origin, varietal, elevation, processing method, and roast profile all shape the final cup. A Bourbon varietal grown at 1,800 meters in Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region tastes wildly different from a Catuai grown at sea level in Brazil’s Cerrado.

That difference is what specialty coffee exists to highlight — not hide.

But We Rarely Give It a Chance

Most coffee drinkers have never really tasted coffee.

Instead, we drown it in syrup, smother it with cream, or scorch it with boiling water that burns away nuance. Then we shrug and call it “strong” — when really, it’s just bitter.

We treat bitterness like a badge of honor, equating it with quality or boldness, when in reality, over-extraction or poor brewing technique is usually to blame.

We rarely pause to ask:

What am I tasting? Where is it from? Who grew it? What makes this cup unique?

Appreciating Coffee Isn’t About Being Fancy

To be clear, this isn’t about becoming a snob or memorizing tasting notes.

It’s about paying attention — and giving coffee the same dignity we give wine.

Wine drinkers are celebrated for developing a palate. For savoring. For noticing.

Coffee deserves that too.

In fact, the global specialty coffee movement has grown precisely because producers, roasters, and baristas have worked tirelessly to elevate coffee from commodity to craft.

Source: Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) defines “specialty coffee” as coffee that scores 80+ points on a 100-point scale — with emphasis on transparency, traceability, and sensory quality.

A Cup Full of Stories

Every single cup of coffee has a story — of soil, of season, of human hands. From the farmers who cultivate the cherries to the meticulous washing or natural drying process, to the roasters who coax flavor from green beans through careful heat application.

To sip it mindlessly is to miss all of that.

But if you slow down… if you notice… if you allow yourself to taste it like you would a glass of wine — there’s so much waiting in that cup.

So, What If Coffee Isn’t Just Fuel?

What if coffee could be a moment of clarity, not chaos?

What if, instead of chugging it between meetings, we actually took a breath, and let it speak?

Because when done right, coffee isn’t fuel. It’s a craft.

And maybe the difference isn’t in the cup — maybe it’s just in how we choose to experience it.

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Next time you brew or buy a cup, don’t just drink it — taste it.

Ask your barista about the origin. Brew it a little slower. Sip it without anything added.

You might be surprised what you discover.

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