Article 69: The four-knowing coffee

Coffee is not merely a drink, but mainly a spiritual nourishment, an art of life, a life concept, a life philosophy of each individual, associated with the way of enjoyment.

The characteristic feature of coffee culture is perception and enjoyment. Perception relates to coffee properties. Enjoyment is about the space, time, and humanity surrounding the coffee drinking experience. In other words, in addition to the physical element, coffee is also metaphysical, providing the values that create lifestyle and culture for the coffee drinker.

Perception of realilty

The ultimate purpose of coffee perception is to help people achieve the 4K consciousness: “Knowing the flavour, Knowing the savor, Knowing the transcendence, Knowing the immanence”, which, in the Eastern parlance, is the four knowings of “hương – vị – linh – huyền”.

The knowing of flavor and savour is through the recognition and evaluation of the pre-taste and aftertaste of coffee, which recognizes the origin, harvest, production, roasting and grinding method of the product. This is the level of technology. Only when reaching the level of Knowing the transcendence – to feel the desires, and messages of the people who have made that coffee product, to be able to merge into their minds. And the level of Knowing the immanence – in the sense of recognizing your own true mind from the cup of coffee you are enjoying, reaching the magical and mystical level of seeing yourself clearly, which is the immanence of reality and enlightenment, reaching the level of the mind in harmony with the mind in Eastern meditation.

Sensory characteristics of coffee change according to the method of blending; geographical source; roasting method; brewing process… These variations affect the coffee taste experience. From this perspective, enjoying a cup of coffee must resort to the process of awakening the five senses: smell, sight, hearing, touch and taste.

From the shape of coffee beans (whole, broken, cracked …) we can tell a lot about the harvesting and preliminary processing. From the color of the beans, we can tell the degree of coffee roasting. From the color of the coffee water, we can predict the taste of coffee, for example: light brown color, sour but smooth, less bitter; light amber brown, sour, slightly bitter; the brown color of cockroach wings is quite harmonious with two bitter and sour flavors; dark brown, more bitter, less sour.

Smelling the coffee aroma, we can tell the origin and identity of the coffee. Coffee hides the aroma of wild fruit from the edges of the African forest. Butter and chocolate aromas from the misty mountains of America. The aroma of smoke, earth, and herbs is typical of Asian coffee…

Listening to the sound we can perceive the way coffee is made as well as the tools used. Hand touching the cup of coffee, mastering the richness and consistency of coffee. And fully sublimate coffee perception when drinking a cup of coffee, directly recognizing the coffee identity and process. Coffee has in itself a long and full history of convection, accumulating after many encounters between cultures. From the taste of coffee we can clearly identify the source of culture, civilization, the world of coffee. For example, coffee has a very strong and thick taste, a long aftertaste, and a fine residue at the bottom of the cup is the identity of the Ottoman coffee civilization – formed from the mythical consciousness of the people, considering spiritual life as the root of coffee. The cup of coffee with fragrant and slightly bitter crema is truly the Roman coffee civilization – the representative coffee civilization of the West, representing the era of applying science and technology in coffee production and preparation. A cup of coffee with a balanced ethereal taste, with a slight bitter aftertaste is a characteristic of Zen Coffee Civilization – a coffee civilization that converges with Eastern philosophy, created from calmness and clarity in every second of humanity to awaken, contemplate and absorb human knowledge.

Understanding oneself and others

Senses are means of contacting and perceiving reality. Enjoying coffee is not just about perceiving objects, people mainly need coffee as a way to help them reveal their true identity and understand the meaning of life to sublimate life.

Because, coffee is not only to drink, but to see and imagine what you want to be, to hear and visualize what you want to have. When the eyes see, the ears hear, the nose smells, and the body touches, the consciousness will recall the past and look forward to what is to come. In this dimension, time, space, and the human world also contribute to the generation of the four Knowings. The space of the coffee shop becomes the time and the place to provide the environment for people to reach their true mind from the cup of coffee they enjoy. In other words, the cafe space is an art space – an art of living.

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Right in the connotation of the coffee shop, it is expressed at the highest level the aspirations of the times in terms of life philosophy, and lifestyle. First is the factor that creates the identity of the cafe, thereby influencing the customer’s perception. If people always live in “perceived space” and “spritual space”, then the “perceived space”, through images, sounds, and symbols, helps to structure the realm and awaken the “spiritual space”. Therefore, each coffee shop space chooses its own identity, in harmony with the common aspirations of the customer community or helps them reach the closest to the ideal human model. This is called “birds of a feather, flock together”.

For example, the British coffee shop set up as the “Penny university”, attracting the genius scientists who played a key role in starting the scientific revolution. The Viennese coffee shop space (Austria) was shaped as a cultural space of the soul, gathering talented people who aspired to rediscover the nature and role of people in the worldview, where many theories of psychology and psychological analysis were developed. The cafes in Montmartre, Montparnasse (France) were spaces for inner performance as well as the human instinct through painting, greatly influenced the artistic thinking of many contemporary painting masters. The chain of Trung Nguyen Legend Café, Trung Nguyen E-Coffee, Creative Space, Saturday Coffee, World Coffee Museum, Trung Nguyen Coffee Village… have been named as “The convergence of great souls”. Where coffee lovers gain comprehensive intellectual power from the precious books in the Life Changing Foundational Bookcase, which have been carefully selected from millions of books, thousands of great and successful examples of mankind by Founder and Chairman of Trung Nguyen Legend Group, Dang Le Nguyen Vu. A place to change thinking, forge great aspirations, for each individual to achieve true success and happiness.

The human world surrounding the enjoyment of coffee is also an essential factor. “Things exist through the mind, the mind projects through things”, the disposition and soul of the person is what creates the spirit of coffee. A cup of coffee that can awaken the common hope of life is the bartender’s masterpiece. The coffee artisans who create masterpieces of art, in addition to their talent and insight into the properties of coffee, also have the ability to arouse the audience to see their own mind through a cup of coffee. Only people with kind hearts can help others see their kindness. And, only those who have lived to be happy can share the energy of happiness to help others be happy.

In this way, the basic content of the metaphysical in the physical being of a cup of coffee is, first of all, to help people feel the nobility in their souls, see the humanity of life in order to live fully with himself in understanding the meaning of life, transforming his mind – his philosophy. Since then, coffee is not just coffee, the core of coffee is an art of living, a philosophy of life.

THE REAL COFFEE
ROASTED ONLY FOR PEOPLE OF WISDOM!

Source: “The Philosophical Way of Coffee” – copyright by Trung Nguyen Legend