COVID - 5 years later
Like we need to keep talking about it, right?
Google Photos sent me a notification this week. It was a picture of my two daughters drawing pictures in the driveway with chalk on the very first day of the COVID-19 lock down - 26 March 2020.
It’s hard to believe that it has been 5 years since the ‘team of 5 million’ stayed inside to keep each other safe from this crazy pandemic. It feels like it was yesterday. It also feels like it was a lifetime ago.
I started to flick through the photos that I took during those first few weeks. Coffee was a massive feature of that time.
At first, the lockdowns were a bit exciting. It was novel to be a part of a collective effort in a fight against something so much bigger than us.
I was one of the lucky ones - I had a job that was stable and could continue throughout the lockdown. All I had to do each day was wake up, make a coffee, work some odd-times, then swap with my wife.
Some days I was on the early shift - starting at 7am and working until 5pm. Other days I was on the late shift, starting as the sun set and working through until midnight - or whenever the COVID-19 web team got sick of the sight of my updates for the website (featuring file names such as “BusinessUpdate-latestrules-final-final-v5-final-v9-defofinal-lastversion-final-v20-interim_version.doc”).
I was even able to leave the house to go to my job if I wanted. I didn’t unless I needed more stationary. If I ever got stopped by the Police, I could wave a piece of paper. I’d get to the office - it’d be empty.
Cafes weren’t so lucky. While everyone figured out the actual rules, it became pretty clear pretty quick that a flat white wasn’t an essential service. Luckily for the New Zealand coffee industry, coffee roasters (and couriers) were. This introduced the country to the wonderful world of specialty coffee at home. Fresh coffee and coffee gear was rushing out the door.
Not everyone could afford fancy brew gear - cue The Magic Roast. Reincarnated as a Substack, TMR Towers, and many others around the place, got into trying to help people brew better coffee at home.
No fuss, no skill, lockdown coffee is easy
There might be light at the end of the lockdown tunnel. But life at Alert Level 3 might not be radically different to what we have been experiencing over the last four weeks or so.
The first lockdown also saw the first TMR contribution from Matty T. He might of had an actual breakdown when cooking up this one…
Cascara brew and cold drip coffee – four ways
Nothing like an apocalyptic lockdown to allow your exploration of the coffee universe run slightly wild.
We managed to make our way through lockdowns, alert level changes, vaccine mandates - but nothing was ever the same. The way we viewed the world changed. The way we viewed our neighbor changed. The way we viewed our government changed. The way we drank coffee changed.
Looking back on the photos, there’s a lot of emotions. Sadness, anger, happiness, love, excitement, fear. It’s been good to relive some of that. I haven’t looked at these photos since I took them. It’s time to reflect and remember, and learn some of the lessons of that time.
This is your reminder to make yourself a coffee and have a look back on those times. It’ll be weird. It’ll probably be worth it.