In the sad old days, office workers turned to gigantic tins of International Roast to jolt them out of fatigue.
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Those days are long gone. Most workers have a cafe in range selling trendy barista coffee that tastes good and gives you a boost.
Some people call coffee a "hug in a mug". For others, it's a "cup of confidence".
Some go even further, labelling coffee the "drink of the gods".
Paul Jackson knows a thing or two about coffee. He's been studying it for 20 years.
Paul is managing director of Danes Specialty Coffee, which is the signature brand at this weekend's Maitland Aroma Chocolate and Coffee Festival.
Danes will have a cafe at the event, along with demonstrations that will show folks how to make homebrew coffee.
Danes is known for its "specialty coffee".
"There's commercial coffee and specialty coffee. Most people don't really know the difference," Paul said.
"We've been on a crusade to help people understand the difference."
The Specialty Coffee Association sets the ratings for coffee. Tasters give ratings between zero and 100.
Commercial coffee is defined as being rated below 80. Specialty coffee is 80 and above.
Paul said the word specialty had been "polarised and hijacked" by industry members, who "don't really know what specialty coffee is".
"They don't try to do specialty or flavour coffee, they just do a coffee for the caffeine's sake," he said.
He said some coffee sellers use the word specialty purely for marketing purposes.
"If the truth came out that it's simply a rating, they'd be classified as commercial grade coffee or commodity coffee."
In its true form, specialty coffee involves the use of high-grade coffee beans with "the potential for flavours like marmalade, blueberry, cloves, jam and sultanas".
"In wine, there's supposed to be 600 different flavour components. In coffee there's about 1200. There's so much potential in flavour."
He said specialty coffee could cut through milk with "dimensions of complexity and flavour, rather than just what they call a roast profile".
"When you roast coffee, you just get the traditional flavours of chocolates and caramels, not the actual flavours bound inherently in the coffee beans."
As coffee mania continues its long rise into trendiness and beyond, more and more people are looking for flavour.
"Slowly but surely, people are learning what I'm talking about," Paul said.
The Maitland Aroma festival is held on Saturday and Sunday.
Sacred Balance
Soul Food Lake Macquarie will hold its monthly event on Sunday at 10.30am at Cameron Park Community Centre.
The event isn't so much about food, it's more about the soul.
Mez Mumtahan, of Soul Food Lake Macquarie, said this month's theme is "The Sacred Balance".
"The theme is about how we can balance our lives between work, family and nature."
Mez said the theme encompassed the four sacred elements of earth, air, fire and water.
"There is no environment out there separate from us [humans]," he said.
"We can't imagine our impact on the environment if we see ourselves and the environment as two separate things. Indigenous people have understood this well for thousands of years. They've lived in harmony with the environment."
The event will delve into ways to get "our physical and spiritual lives in balance with the environment".
"People want to take the resources from the Earth and give nothing back. What's the future if we keep doing that?
"The balance is about how we can use the environment and resources we have, and at the same time how we can look after it and protect it for future generations."
The event will include readings from the writings of David Suzuki, Aboriginal creation dreaming, Native American culture and the Dalai Lama.
It'll also include a reading from Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov.
Part of it goes like this: "Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things".
Soul Food Lake Macquarie is an initiative of the Australian Baha'i community.
Topics doesn't know much about the Baha'i faith, except what we read yesterday. It emphasises the "essential oneness of humankind and of all religions and seeking world peace".
It believes in equality of women and men, harmony of science and religion, abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth, elimination of all forms of prejudice and equal standards of human rights for all people.
Soul Food Lake Macquarie will be held on Sunday at 10.30am at Cameron Park Community Centre.
