Swamp, with fog
andyscamera
Allow me a moment to tell you about the coffee of Katsu Tanaka. Yes this is a swamp, with fog; but stay with me all will become clear.
Katsu Tanaka serves what is arguably the world’s most flavourful, fragrant and delicious coffee. He calls it Angel Stain. I will close my eyes as I try to describe it; so thick that it sticks to the side of a cup, almost like molasses, so short that, if you didn’t sip, it barely fills a single gulp. A kiss on your lips, not just any old kiss, one so memorable that you can recall it years later. A temperature that soothes your blood, a luminosity of flavour with no hint of acidity, but gentle floods of liquorice, chocolate and sensations you’ve never tasted.
He serves this delight only between 11am and 1pm, and never makes more than twenty shots in one day. Such a perfect creation demands great concentration. His store is smaller than the restrooms of most North American coffee shops, it is always busy, it is called Bear Pond. Bears according to Katsu Tanaka do not care about rules, they are honest, so he named his store after a favourite bear pond in upstate New York, a simple honest place.
This is not that pond, it is a foggy swamp in Ontario. A realtor would call such a swamp a pond, but locals would call it “the swamp”. Obviously a bear wouldn’t care if it were a swamp or a pond, and would experience it it for what it was. A landscape need not have great architecture or outstanding natural features in order to be memorable. A mouthful of coffee can offer up a perfect moment, as can a swamp with fog.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Rachel Irving and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
