Coffee and I

People ask me all the time why I do not write about coffee.

They usually ask with genuine curiosity, sometimes with a hint of surprise. Wine, whisky, aromas, sensory analysis. All of that seems obvious to them. Coffee, less so. The assumption is often that I skipped it, or that it never really mattered to me.

The truth is more uncomfortable. Coffee was my first initiation into aromas. Long before wine or spirits, coffee was already there. Not as a hobby, not as a passion project, but as a constant presence. Coffee was my father’s world. He spent most of his career in the coffee business, and when something like that surrounds you early on, it becomes part of your internal framework. You do not think about it. You absorb it.

Few people know this, but we own one of the very few original Nespresso prototype machines. Not as a curiosity, and not as a trophy. For us, coffee was never casual. It was structural. It shaped conversations, mornings, work rhythms, and attention.

I wrote a book on coffee years ago. It is finished. It exists. It is simply waiting for one thing. My father’s review. That pause is intentional. Some subjects demand restraint. Coffee is one of them.

I drink coffee every day. I have been roasting coffee for years. Anyone who has delved deep into coffee knows how quickly it can take over one's life. Grind size, water chemistry, extraction time, and temperature control. It becomes ritualistic, repetitive, and demanding. Coffee rewards precision and punishes distraction.

When I brew coffee seriously, there is no room for anything else. No phone. No interruptions. No divided attention. I call it being in the coffee zone. Once I am there, everything slows down. Movements are deliberate. Timing matters. Sound matters. You do not rush it, and you do not improvise. You execute.

That discipline came before anything else. Before wine. Before whisky. Coffee taught me how to focus without spectacles. How to pay attention without needing validation.

These days, I keep things simpler. I enjoy what good local baristas make. I am perfectly comfortable with a Nespresso at home. Coffee does not care how you look while drinking it.

Every now and then, I take the arsenal out and have what I call a proper coffee moment. No audience. No performance. Just attention.

Maybe once the book is finalized, I will start writing more about coffee. Or maybe coffee is the one subject that never needed words, because it has always been there, quietly shaping everything else.

About the Author

Sébastien Gavillet is COO of Wine Aromas - Le Nez du Vin. A renowned wine and whisky expert, winemaker, and distiller, Sébastien has been working with Le Nez du Vin for over 25 years. He is the author of Discovering and Mastering Single Malt Scotch Whisky and the International Whisky Guide series. He serves as a panel chair and examiner for The Council of Whiskey Masters, shaping global tasting standards and mentoring the next generation of spirits professionals.