This is NPR's Life Kit.

There's something utilitarian about a cup of coffee.

You wake up and are running at about 50%, you make the hot brown water, pour it down your

mouth, and you're a little closer to 90.

Which is fine if a little joyless, especially for something you do every day.

But it can be better.

With just a few simple steps, coffee can go from something you use to something you drink

and enjoy and really take a second to let yourself look juryate, if only for a second.

I'm Angelin Bong, arts reporter for NPR.

On this episode of Life Kit, the basics to making a better cup of coffee at home.

For a while, all I needed was a Mr. Coffee machine and a can of chocolate nuts and I was content.

So why even bother leveling up?

I think people should know that coffee is an amazing thing.

That Sandra Wallymaki, she's working coffee for over 18 years.

She'll have us know.

Coffee has so many like flavor compounds, countless way to brew it.

And it's such a beautiful thing once you experience it.

Sandra talks about coffee the same way lots of people talk about craft beer, brewing methods,

tasting notes, flavor profiles.

For her, coffee is personal.

My grandmother was a coffee farmer and that's kind of just where everything started.

Coffee was always that memory.

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