It is National Coffee Week here in the UK and we are being encouraged to enjoy the wonders of that most luxurious and civilised of drinks. If you are an unreformed caffeine addict like me though, you will need no encouragement. It was almost beyond my powers of restraint to give myself the time to photograph my morning coffee ritual but, dear readers, you know I would do anything for you.
I hope that the virtual smell of my freshly ground Colombian beans is not too much for you – it is making me rush through this blog.
Here is that long awaited mug and, as much as I would love to hang around chatting, I feel the need, crave the rush and, well, if you need any more encouragement here is one of the greatest coffee promotions in the history of the arts, J.S. Bach’s delicious Kaffee Kantate BWV 211, the Coffee Cantata with its soprano aria where we are told that a cup of coffee is more delicious than a thousand kisses and, as you know, Germans never joke.
Here are the words if you don’t believe me:
Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße,
Lieblicher als tausend Küsse,
Milder als Muskatenwein.
Coffee, Coffee muß ich haben,
Und wenn jemand mich will laben,
Ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!
Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes,
I am off now but hang around for a moment and listen to this. It is the stylish Bach singer Rosemaria Hofmann with the Linde Consort led by Hans Martin Linde – with Bach’s advocacy who needs coffee adverts or national coffee weeks? Just make yourself a cup, sit back, and, as they say on middle brow classical music stations, relax.
If you are still there and fancy another cup, here is the final chorus made by my old friends from Liepzig, Euroarts, a leading German maker of classical music programmes.
Here are the English words so you can appreciate some typically Teutonic Bachian humour. I enjoyed my time with my colleagues at Euroarts, they always laughed at my jokes – even when I didn’t think they were funny. The music, of course, is great.
A cat won’t stop from catching mice,