If you’re a woman entrepreneur, there’s a good chance coffee has attended more business meetings than some of your employees. 😂
It’s there while you’re answering emails.
It’s riding in the car to the event.
It’s next to the laptop while you’re working on your website at a ridiculous hour.
And some mornings, we’re drinking it because we genuinely love coffee.
Other mornings?
Ma’am. We need the caffeine.
I get it.
But the more I’ve built Me Time Coffee around the idea of turning your first cup into an intentional part of your morning, the more I believe we should also talk about what’s actually in that cup.
Because if you’re drinking coffee every day, quality matters.
And you don’t need to become a coffee expert to understand the difference.
Coffee Is More Than Caffeine
For a lot of entrepreneurs, coffee becomes functional.
Wake up. Brew it. Drink it. Get to work.
We think about whether it will wake us up before we think about whether it’s actually good.
But your morning cup can be both.
Yes, I want my coffee.
Yes, I appreciate the caffeine.
But I also want those few minutes with my cup to be part of my pause.
That’s the whole idea behind a Me Time Morning™.
Coffee isn’t only the thing that gets us going.
It can also be the thing that reminds us to slow down before we go.
And if we’re going to intentionally sit down and enjoy it, I want what’s in the cup to be worth enjoying.
So let’s talk coffee.
First: What Does “Specialty-Grade Coffee” Actually Mean?
You’ve probably seen the words specialty coffee before.
It sounds fancy, but here’s what I want you to understand:
Not all coffee is the same quality.
Coffee quality is influenced by what happens long before the bag gets to your kitchen—from how and where the coffee is grown to harvesting, processing, roasting and eventually brewing.
Traditionally, the coffee industry has used a 100-point evaluation system to assess coffee quality, with coffees scoring 80 or above commonly classified as specialty grade.
For you, the person standing in the kitchen at 6:30 in the morning, the takeaway is much simpler:
Better-quality beans give us a better starting point for a better cup.
That’s one reason specialty-grade coffee matters to me as the founder of Me Time Coffee.
I’m not asking you to create an intentional ritual around coffee I wouldn’t be excited to drink myself.
Freshness Matters More Than You Might Think
Here’s another thing I want you to start paying attention to:
When was your coffee roasted?
Coffee doesn’t suddenly become unusable because it’s been sitting around, but coffee is an agricultural product, and its aroma and flavor change over time.
That’s why there’s a difference between coffee that’s been sitting on a store shelf for an unknown amount of time and coffee that’s roasted fresh.
At Me Time Coffee, our coffee is roasted to order.
Orders placed Monday through Thursday are typically roasted within one to two days of ordering and shipped three to five days after roasting.
That means we’re not roasting huge amounts of coffee and letting bags wait around hoping somebody eventually buys them.
Freshness is part of the experience.
Because once you start actually savoring your coffee instead of simply using it as a caffeine delivery system, these things start to matter.
Darker Doesn’t Automatically Mean “Stronger”
This one gets people.
You’ll often hear someone say:
“I need a dark roast. I like strong coffee.”
But roast level and caffeine strength aren’t the same thing.
Light, medium and dark describe how the beans have been roasted and the flavors that develop during that process.
A darker roast can give you those deeper, bolder, roasted flavors.
A lighter roast can preserve brighter or more delicate characteristics.
A medium roast often sits somewhere between the two.
None of those automatically means better.
The question is:
What do YOU actually enjoy drinking?
That’s what I want you to start paying attention to.
And Bitter Doesn’t Mean “Good Coffee”
We’ve been conditioned to think coffee is just supposed to taste bitter.
So we pour it into the mug, taste it, make a face, and immediately start adding cream and sugar until it tastes like something we actually want to drink. 😂
Your brewing method can absolutely affect bitterness. Grind size, water temperature, brew time and the amount of coffee you’re using all matter.
But the coffee itself matters too.
Good coffee can have natural sweetness, acidity, body and recognizable flavor characteristics.
Chocolate.
Citrus.
Nutty flavors.
Vanilla.
Fruit.
Caramel-like sweetness.
And no, that doesn’t necessarily mean someone poured chocolate or an orange into your coffee.
Those can be characteristics we perceive naturally in the coffee.
Once you start paying attention, your morning cup gets a whole lot more interesting.
You Don’t Need to Become a Coffee Snob
This might be the most important part.
I don’t need you standing in your kitchen trying to identify 17 flavor notes before you’ve brushed your teeth. 😂
That’s not what What’s In Your Cup? is about.
I want you to become a more informed coffee drinker.
Know what you like.
Understand what you’re buying.
Know why freshness matters.
Learn how your brewing method changes your cup.
Try different roast levels.
And start noticing what makes you say:
Ohhhh. That’s GOOD.
Because you’re already drinking the coffee.
We might as well learn a little more about it.
Your Morning Cup Deserves the Same Intention as Your Morning
As women entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time thinking about quality in our businesses.
The customer experience.
The packaging.
The website.
The service.
The details.
We know the details matter.
I want us to bring some of that same energy to ourselves.
If coffee is something you’re drinking every morning, what’s in your cup matters too.
Not because we need another thing to obsess over.
Because taking care of ourselves can also look like becoming more intentional about the things we’re already consuming every single day.
Your coffee can give you caffeine.
It can taste damn good.
And it can be your pause before you go build the thing you’re building.
Tomorrow morning, don’t just drink your coffee.
Taste it.
Notice it.
Enjoy it while it’s hot.
And ask yourself:
What’s actually in my cup?
Pause. Sip. Savor.®
0 comments