Hooga

 

Kristin loves to watch CBS Sunday morning on yes, you guessed it, Sunday mornings.  I often drink coffee and listen along while surfing the internet, typically playing around on the golf forum I frequent, GolfWRX.

This week they presented a great piece on happiness and the study of happiness.  Denmark often ranks quite high in these studies, so of course, the CBS crew visited Copenhagen.  I’ll spare you the play-by-play as I’m sure it would be easy enough to find a link to the full episode, but the part I found fascinating was concerning a uniquely Danish concept embodied by the word “hygge.”

It’s pronounced hooga almost like the french Hugo with an “a” instead of an “o” at the end.  Huga.  Evidently there’s no direct translation into English, but it was explained as taking pleasure in the little things in life, while the Danish tourism bureau thinks, “cozy” is a synonym.

http://www.visitdenmark.com/hygge

Things that are quintessential and nice.  Hygge.  Bicycles can be hygge.  Watch the video in the above link.

So, this week’s photo is one of the things that are very hygge for me, the latte.  Many of my close friends know that I can get borderline obsessive about coffee.  I’ve roasted coffee, I’ve brewed it every way imaginable, I drink it every single day of my life.  I don’t want it to be a routine way of administering caffeine; I want it to be special.  Every.  Single.  Day.

I will readily admit I’ve failed recently.  I’ve gone to making a french press as it affords two cups and little fuss, but it has failed me.  I need my latte.  My espresso machine has been a little under the weather and needing maintenance, but unfortunately that can only be done by your’s truly and I’ve been short on time and motivation to fix it.  Time to correct not protect.

So, what’s particularly hygge about this photo.  And this is my favorite part for those of you that have made it this far….

I have spent years of my life waking up every day and pulling two shots of espresso, steaming a carafe of milk, and blending my own special latte.  You would think after hundreds and hundreds of lattes made that I could pour some latte art.  For those of you that aren’t big coffee drinkers, that’s the decoration between  the brown “crema” oil in the espresso and the white microfoam milk bubbles on top of the coffee.  This is the single example of anything neat that I’ve ever poured.  Truly one in a hundred at least, probably really one in a thousand.  Hygge.  Have a great week everyone!