Coffee

I have my coffee in the morning with a little half-and-half in it. I'll almost always drink more than a cup. I'll almost always leave a cup with maybe an inch of coffee in the bottom. I'll walked away and forget it as I get ready to walk the dog or begin my very roundabout preparationsto leave for work. I'll throw the cold coffee in the sink, rinse it away, and put the cup in the dishwasher. But occasionally, before I do that, I'll notice a pattern on the cold coffee's surface. The fat I've poured into the liquid (mostly fat, anyway), has arrayed itself into something of a star shape or maybe a coffee flower -- spokes radiating from a center. I feel certain that someone in some physics lab somewhere (or maybe someplace more humble, like a high school chemistry class) has explained this. I guess I need to go find that someone.

Comments

[Alana]

That's particularly beautiful. I've taken a few pics of my own coffee and tea, but haven't seen one quite like that. Looks like the "new moon in the old moon's arms" above sand dunes.

[Dan Brekke]

Alana -- thanks!