MUSE MONDAY
Please welcome Neil Plakcy to Muse Monday on Discover... He's sharing his spot today with Betty Martinez, the owner of The Smiling Dog Cafe. Neil has a wonderful series full of hope and doggies and coffee. All three of which are my favorite things. Today is release day for the third book in his series, Grounds for Hope. I have it cued on my reader and can't wait to dive in. Meanwhile, enjoy Betty's delightful lesson on coffee...
Betty’s
Guide to Coffee Beans
A
Smiling Dog Café offering
Welcome, Friend.
There's a reason you're holding this guide right now. Perhaps you're looking for a deeper understanding of the coffee you drink each morning. Maybe you're searching for that perfect cup that brings comfort on difficult days.
Whatever brought you to these pages, welcome. I'm Betty Martinez, owner of the Smiling Dog Café in Brooklyn, and I believe that coffee, like healing, is both science and art. It requires precision and patience, but also intuition and heart.
In my thirty years as a grief counselor before opening the café, I learned that people need different things at different moments. The same is true of coffee. Sometimes we need the bright clarity of a light roast to help us face new beginnings. Other times, we need the deep comfort of a dark roast to hold us through difficult nights.
This guide focuses on coffee beans - their origins, characteristics, and the stories they carry within them. The beans are just the beginning of our journey together, but they're the foundation upon which every meaningful cup is built.
Understanding Coffee Beans: The Heart of Every Cup
Coffee beans aren't really beans at all. They're the seeds of coffee cherries, fruits that grow on small trees in specific regions around the world. Like people, these seeds carry the legacy of their origins - the soil that nourished them, the rainfall that quenched their thirst, the sunlight that warmed them through seasons of growth.
When we roast these seeds, we're helping them transform their stored potential into something that can nourish others. The heat reveals qualities that were always present but hidden, brings forward notes of chocolate or fruit or spice that tell the story of where they came from and how they grew.
Every coffee bean carries its own particular wisdom. Learning to listen to what each one has to tell us is part of the journey toward that perfect cup - the one that speaks directly to you, in your own language of comfort and joy.
In Colombia, I met Dona Clemencia, who told me, "You already know the most important thing—that coffee is medicine for the soul before it is anything else."
When I asked what she meant, Doña Clemencia invited us into her modest home, where she prepared coffee using a method I'd only seen my grandmother use—cloth filtered, with a patience that modern brewing rarely allows. The kitchen filled with an aroma so complex it seemed to have its own vocabulary.
"In Colombia," she explained, "we say that coffee has memory. It remembers the soil, the rain, the hands that picked it. And when we drink it mindfully, it helps us remember too—not just the painful things we try to forget, but also the joyful things we shouldn't."
The Colombian beans I brought home from that trip—particularly those from high-altitude farms in Huila and Nariño—carried complex notes of red fruit, chocolate, and a pleasant nuttiness with a clean, bright acidity. But their true value lay in what they taught us about healing. Not the American model of "getting over" grief, but the Colombian understanding that some griefs remain with us forever, becoming integrated into who we are, like the flavor of the soil becomes part of the coffee bean.
I discovered that
Colombian coffees seemed particularly effective for people struggling with
transitions—those caught between past and future, between pain and possibility.
The beans' balance of brightness and depth mirrored what we were learning about
healing: that acknowledgment of darkness makes the light more appreciable, not
less.
The finest Colombian coffees still carry that perfect tension between acidic brightness and comforting warmth—a reminder that healing doesn't mean forgetting, but finding balance between remembering and moving forward.
When I brew Colombian beans at the café, especially for someone navigating life's thresholds—graduation, career change, relationship endings—I think of Doña Clemencia's weathered hands, showing us that nurturing growth requires both tenderness and strength.
These memories infuse the coffee I serve, invisible but present, like the altitude and rainfall that shaped the beans themselves. This is what I learned in Colombia: that coffee, at its best, is not just a beverage but a bridge—between past and present, between cultures, between people seeking to understand each other across the chasms of different experiences.
Selecting Your Coffee Beans
When choosing coffee beans, consider what you're seeking in this moment:
For Mornings of
New Beginnings
Reach for lighter roasts from Ethiopia or Kenya, where bright, citrusy notes can help you greet the day with clarity and purpose. These coffees awaken the senses and remind us that each day offers fresh possibilities.
For Thoughtful
Afternoons
Medium roasts from
Colombia or Costa Rica provide the perfect balance for contemplative moments.
Their harmonious flavors create space for reflection without demanding too much
attention.
A medium-dark Guatemalan or a sweet Brazilian offers warmth and grounding as the day winds down. Their gentle sweetness soothes without overwhelming.
For Moments of
Transformation
A dark Sumatran or robust Vietnamese coffee can accompany you through times of intense change. Their bold presence reminds you of your own strength even as you transform.
You are always welcome at The Smiling Dog Café, down a Brooklyn side street, where the coffee’s brewing, and the dogs are waiting to help you with your own healing process. To read the stories that have come before you, you can find The Smiling Dog Café, The Bridge Between Us, and our newest offering, Grounds for Hope, available on Monday, August 4, 2025. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4Z5VHTC
In this deeply compassionate third entry in the Smiling Dog Café series—fully enjoyable as a standalone—author Neil S. Plakcy shares two powerful novellas about grief, resilience, and the unexpected ways we find our way home.
In Grounds for Hope, Miguel is alone on the streets after his father is deported back to their violence-plagued homeland. Cold, hungry, and nearly out of hope, he’s led to the café by a mysterious pit bull named Baxter—and taken in by Betty, the wise café owner whose coffee and compassion help restore his sense of safety and purpose.
In Finding Grace, Tanya is reeling after her mother’s decision to walk away from their life to “find herself.” Angry and unmoored, Tanya is gently nudged toward the café by Kiyomi, a calm, three-legged Samoyed—and slowly begins to rediscover her strength, her voice, and her path forward.
This tender volume celebrates how healing begins—in community, through ritual and memory, and with the quiet guidance of a dog who always knows exactly who needs help next.
Come in from the cold. The coffee’s brewing, and the dogs are waiting.
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I’m proud that since the first book was released in January, we have already garnered
nearly 200 four- and five-star reviews from satisfied customers.
Neil S. Plakcy is the author of over 70 novels in mystery, romance, adventure and healing fiction. His website is www.mahubooks.com.
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