The Caffeinated Librarian

Hi, I’m Patrick. I live and work in Brussels, Belgium. I’m a librarian, but I don’t work in a library anymore. I work for a service that supports the 20 Dutch-speaking public libraries in the Brussels Capital Region.

I have a love-hate relationship with coffee. Like many people, I used to drink coffee without thinking about it. Out of habit. Before I started my coffee experiment, the only really good coffee I ever drank was that of my grandparents. Rombouts on my father’s side, Douwe Egberts on my mother’s side. But that was a long time ago. It was a different time, and it was a different coffee.

For more than 20 years, I only drank tea at home (mostly Rooibos, which is not even tea). Out of fear of bad coffee: cacocafephobia. It was one thing to be offered bad coffee elsewhere. But making bad coffee myself? No siree! 

During the 2020-2021 coronavirus pandemic and the many weeks and months of working from home, I missed the coffee from the office (although it is not of the best quality either). So I started drinking coffee at home. Never more than one large 330 ml cup a day. Instant coffee at first, then one cup plastic filter coffee. Both have their flaws and qualities. But in the end, it’s not something I’d call real coffee.

I don’t agree with American filmmaker David Lynch who said that “even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.” So, one day, I decided to start making fresh coffee myself. It had to be simple, quick and not take up much space. These conditions determined the choice of my coffee gear.

And this blog? We’ll see how long I can keep it up. But if I’m going to experiment and try, if I’m going to discover and develop my personal taste in coffee (what I really hope to do, as I once did with wine and beer), then I’d like to share the experience with you.

Wondering about the subtitle of this blog? It is, of course, a veiled reference to Stanley Kubrick’s unsurpassed 1964 comedy “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. In my case, I had to stop worrying about bad coffee so that I could brew good one myself.

As a librarian, I may not know everything, but I do know how to find everything — or at least a lot. Therefore, I will also regularly refer to interesting literature or media.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries.

— Samuel Johnson (Boswell’s Life of Johnson)

Do you have a question or a suggestion? Please use the form to contact me.