Tuesday 1 December 2009

Season of Goodwill

I've decided to set myself a couple of challenges for the month of December.

Over the past year I have discovered that the more I learn about coffee the more critical I can be about the cup that I am served at a cafe. Sometimes that has come out in my blog posts, but most of the time it's been in my head...or said to my long-suffering wife. The flip side of this knowledge is, of course, a greater appreciation of a cup of coffee when it is well produced.

However, for the next few weeks I'm going to try my best to simply enjoy the whole experience of coffee even if what I am served isn't that great - the location or the people I talk to or the thoughts in my head might be instead.

The other thing that I am going to do is impose on myself a 10% charity tax on any coffee I drink during December. I'm doing this in response to my thoughts about yesterday's post. So the more coffee I drink, the bigger the donation will be to Christian Aid.

2 comments:

Snot Head (a.k.a Kylie) said...

You coffee snob you! Just kidding. ;o) Anyway, I was just curious if baristas have tip jars in Ireland? I'm thinking my act of coffee goodwill could be to drop a decent tip in instead of the non-existent tip I normally leave.

There is one barista I especially like talking with at a bookstore nearby, and even though I have certain thoughts about how they could better their cappuccino, he is still a wonderful barista in my opinion. I don't necessarily always agree that someone should be tipped for doing their job as expected, but for his exceptional people skills, I think he deserves a bit of a reward.

What do you think?

Cosmo said...

Tipping is a far bigger part of the culture in the US than it is over here. For instance, tonight we had pizza delivered and the delivery guy simply gave me my pizza (I'd already paid when ordering) and quickly turned away back down the path without lingering. I had to call him back to tip him!

So...anyway. Yes, cafes have tip jars here though they don't seem to be used too much. Sometimes I'll throw a little change in if I see they have poured a good looking cup. But that is they're job and I still have to stand in line to get it so I definately don't think it's expected.

But hey, it's your money! (Maybe you should stop all tipping for a while. The money you save could go towards your own machine!!!)