Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre,  Wakefield, NZ Feb.16 to 22, 2013 At the beginning of a meditation retreat, Jamie van Dam, of the Galiano Coffee Lab  was asked to introduce specialty coffee and the technique of cupping to 11 meditators... For one week we began each day, after breakfast, with a blind cupping/tasting of some of the best coffees of New Zealand and Canada. The retreatants were a delight to share this with. Many of them are experienced meditators so they had open and receptive minds to the blind tasting process. Even the new ones had such good enthusiasm!  Each day started with the introduction of another aspect of coffee tasting/perceiving as well as a bit of theory on the history of coffee and the business of coffee  with special thanks to the Canadian Barista Institute. We also examined the coffee roasting procedure step by step, focusing on the extraction theory, water temperature variables, and dosing versus grind size adjustment. .  Befor