Moments after hearing the coffee machine click and the espresso starting to pour, I looked up expecting to see two beautiful thin curved golden-brown flows into the cup — but I couldn’t see any coffee. I thought: was that a 5-second shot? Was there any coffee in that cup? Not the coffee I was looking for.
The next day I decided to pay closer attention, timing the barista from the first flow of coffee until it finished. It didn’t look right. In Copenhagen, at a great specialty coffee shop, I’d expect a 25-30 second extraction for a quality double espresso. In Fiji, this felt like something quite different.
It’s a small thing, really. But it’s a reminder that craft and attention to detail matter — whether you’re pulling espresso or designing a Zero Trust architecture. The fundamentals don’t change because of geography. The standard is the standard.
Great coffee, like great security, requires patience, precision, and a refusal to cut corners. The 25 seconds isn’t arbitrary — it’s where the chemistry happens.
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