A kick of coffee culture

It’s one in the morning and Dorian Gray (in that book that everyone claims to have read), or maybe Bill Hicks in a downloaded AVI of the fabled Dominion show, is about to spew forth an epiphany or two, but your eyelids are being overpowered by gravity. You can hardly hold the book up, or hold your eyes pinned to the computer screen. The spirit is willing but the flesh is sleepy. A trail of Z’s is about to invisibly sprout from your mouth. So, what do you do? You dial a friend.

You go to the coffee machine and dial-in one hot or cold brew — a frothy latte macchiato to rouse up your sleepy-headed self. Or go old school with a hard-hitting brewed or espresso number. Then go back to Wilde or Hicks or both.

Nice to have a Nescafé Dolce Gusto machine in your own home. Whereas before, it was instant-coffee-till-death-do-you-part; now there are more choices — Café Lungo, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, Mocha, Chococino, or Peach. Sophisticated ones at that. The machine has that easy-to-learn “pop, lock and drop” mechanism.

The manual makes it all so clear. No mess, no fuss. It allows users to alternate between cold and hot beverages in an instant. And the machine sits adorably in one’s kitchen — a futuristic bringer of hot or cold sips and good jolts.

Pop a capsule: Café Lungo, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, Mocha, Chococino, or Peach — sophisticated coffee flavors for the Nescafé Dolce Gusto

A testimony: I have a Piccolo Red penguin model at home and it’s always ready when I have something that must be done (an article, a painting) yet feel like Napoleon Dynamite drearily slipping into the dream country. One hit and I’m funkily Jamiroquaing back to work.

Nescafé Dolce Gusto business manager Yayin Bangcoro explains: “Remember the time when you prepare coffee in large pots, the ones with the filter. The Dolce Gusto is the latest innovation by Nescafé, which makes use of the one-portion coffee system.”

The important concern for Bangcoro and the rest of Nescafe: “Why not have gourmet café-style drinks inside your home?”

She points to the capsules with seven coffee flavors. “What’s great about this machine is you could prepare all seven different coffee variants using only one machine. It’s a multi-beverage system.”

There is the Dolce Gusto Piccolo model and another model with a bigger water tank, the Circolo. It won a Red Dot Design honorable mention accolade for its unique, futuristic design. Think Stanley Kubrick serving you coffee. In space. 

Jiggy Cruz and Yayin Bangcoro of Nescafé consumer marketing with coffee artist Sunshine Plata and STAR columnist RJ Ledesma

For the launch of these cool coffee machines in an event dubbed as “Dolce Gustazione” at Beso, the paintings of coffee artist Sunshine Plata were featured.

While other artists make do with the traditional, textbook, getting-to-be-obscenely-priced materials (oil, acrylic, gouache), Sunshine just needs jarfuls of coffee and water to create works of art.

Why coffee art in the first place?

“I want to be different,” Sunshine says. She wanted a medium that is more accessible and accordable, starting out with Nescafé instant coffee powder and then gradually making her way into different variants. “I got inspired by this 19th-century painting I saw at Ripley’s Believe or Not Museum. The artist signed the artwork with coffee. Kung napatagal niya ng hundred years ’yun, eh di tatagal din pag painting na mismo.”

The disadvantage of painting with coffee is that you’re limited to browns, which is not a bad thing considering how terrible some artists use colors (with their tasteless vomits of hues depicting still lifes and sarimanoks).

“Ang advantage is that it’s non-toxic,” she explains. And Sunshine found a way of breaking the monotony of browns by using dabs of watercolor vermilion and other tints, as well as utilizing appealing patterns and textures.

“Gusto ko ring i-share sa ibang tao na hindi sila dapat limited lang sa materials for painting. Basta creative ka, you can come up with unique artworks. Creative naman talaga tayong mga Pinoy, kulang lang or namamahalan lang tayo sa materials.”

“Swan Symphony” and “Protectress of the Unborn” by Sunshine Plata. She created this painting using coffee powder and water.

Sunshine has made a name for herself by painting coffee farmers. “I’m really grateful to them, because without them I wouldn’t be able to get the materials that I need for my art. Para ganahan din sila na pagpatuloy nila ’yung pagsasaka nila. May halaga sila sa lipunan natin.”

As for other common themes, Sunshine is heavily into fairies and cute figuration.   

She has recurring dreams of those ethereal creatures of folklore. Maybe her art is a way of explaining to herself the meaning of her dreams. 

Cool to wake up a dream of fairies and sip something hot from the fiery-red coffee machine.

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Nescafé Dolce Gusto is available at all S&R outlets, Rustan’s Power Plant, Shangri-La Makati, select Shopwise branches, Landmark, and other leading supermarkets. For information, visit www.facebook/com/NescaféDolceGustoPh.