The
smell
was why used the machine. That and the hum of the machine as it poured the stream of the black extract.
The machine cost half the salary of an entry level watcher. When Keith first arrived this appalled him. Many
coworkers
quipped about it still. Now Keith understood why the firm installed such an expensive
coffee
machine
.
When you're stuck in
space
, you quickly run out of things to do. Keith didn't drink
coffee
on earth. In fact didn't drink hot beverages at all. Few months into the
floating
life he thought why the hell not, and tried
tea
and coffee. What else was there to do up here?
Following similar thinking, the watchers often drank coffee and tea all day. So the machines that made them needed to be top notch. Easy to maintain and clean. The ability to produce drinks all day everyday without breaking down. For the firm it was worth it to spend such money. Otherwise they'd probably need more expensive investments to keep their watchers from going busy. Who knew how much retention these coffee machines led to? You didn't need to do the math to figure the saving from employee retentions was greater than the cost of the machines plus the cost of the beans.
Coffee. Everybody in space was a coffee snob. Keith hated it. At first it was exciting. Getting into coffee and talking about it. Months of it and you want to talk about something else. That's when he quit talking about coffee. But there was always some other wanker talking excitedly about it. Usually a newcomer. Keith became known as the grumpy old guy because he'd never join into these conversations.
Now he simply drank the coffee but didn't speak about it. He'd still hang out in the breakroom though where the machines were. Because where else would he hang out? Unlike the other watchers he wouldn't stay there long though. Almost everybody took their whole alloted break time. After finishing his drink, Keith would have the machine make another. He'd stand by the machine as it extracted another drink. First grinding. Then hissing. And then humming. It'd be about 60 seconds and then he'd head over with that second drink back to his station.