The Coffee Lover’s Guide to Fall: Seven Ways to Make Your Morning Coffee a Moment

For most of us, coffee is less of a beverage and more of a daily marker. It’s the first thing we reach for in the morning. It’s the cup that comes with us on the commute and sometimes the excuse we need to step away for a few minutes in the afternoon.

And fall is coffee’s best season.

Cool mornings, busy school-day routines, Saturday sidelines, weekend road trips and afternoons that finally make a hot drink sound good again give us plenty of reasons to keep our favorite cup close.

So this fall, let’s make a little more out of the coffee we're already drinking. No complicated routines required. Here are a few ways to make your everyday cup feel more like a ritual:

1. Take your first cup outside.

You waited all summer for this weather. Enjoy it.

As the temperature finally drops, take your coffee to the porch, patio or backyard. Even if you only have five or 10 minutes, taking this time for yourself to quietly reflect and enjoy the morning before the hustle of the day begins can help you start your day feeling a little more grounded and a lot less rushed.

Bring your coffee out in a Simple Modern Voyager 360, leave your phone inside and enjoy the rare moment when simply sitting outside feels like an activity.

2. Find your fall coffee.

Pumpkin spice gets plenty of attention, but your fall coffee doesn't have to involve pumpkin at all. Try maple. Cinnamon. Brown sugar. Salted caramel. Vanilla. Hazelnut. Or forget the flavors altogether and focus on a coffee roast you really love.

The point isn't to order the drink everyone else associates with fall. It's to find the one that makes you look forward to making coffee in the morning. Bonus points for making it at home and pouring it into your Voyager before heading out the door.

3. Create a coffee soundtrack.

Some mornings call for quiet, and that’s glorious on its own. Others need music.

Make a fall playlist specifically for your morning coffee. Don’t make it long, five or six songs you love is enough.

Put it on while the coffee brews, fill your Voyager and give yourself one song before opening email, checking the calendar or moving on to whatever the day has waiting. Everything can wait three minutes while you settle into the morning.

4. Make the school drop-off coffee count.

For parents, coffee and the school drop-off line are practically a fall tradition of their own.

You're finding shoes, packing lunches, signing forms, locating backpacks and trying to get everyone out the door on time. Your coffee shouldn't become the forgotten mug sitting on the kitchen counter.

Make it before the rush really begins and put it in something designed to come with you.

The Voyager 360 was made for exactly these kinds of mornings: fill it, grab it and take your coffee along for the ride. It’ll keep your coffee hot through the hugs, honks and waves as the kids hop out for school.

And once everyone is safely delivered where they need to go? Pull over and take an extra minute to sip the coffee that’s still waiting for you before moving on to the next thing.

5. Give Saturday morning coffee its own rules.

Weekday coffee is built to be functional. Saturday coffee deserves not to be.

Make the latte. Add the whipped cream. Try the recipe you saved three weeks ago. Sit on the porch and sip slowly while the kids play. Take it with you to the kids' soccer game. Bring it along for the farmer's market, pumpkin patch or Saturday morning errands.

Whatever your weekends look like, let Saturday coffee feel a little different from Monday-through-Friday coffee. Fall weekends don't last forever. Let Saturdays be the day you savor them.

6. Take an afternoon coffee break. No, literally.

Be honest; most of our “coffee breaks” mean we’re still answering emails, scrolling our phones or working through a to-do list.

Try actually taking one. Make your afternoon coffee, step away from your desk and give yourself 10 minutes where you aren't accomplishing anything.

Beautiful fall day? Take your Voyager and go outside. Walk around the block. Sit somewhere sunny. Call someone you like talking to.

Coffee doesn't always have to be the thing that helps you get more done. It also can just be the reason you stop doing things for a few minutes.

7. Not a coffee person? Find your fall drink.
Coffee may get most of the attention this time of year, but you don't have to love coffee to claim a warm drink moment of your own.

Try a favorite hot tea, chai, matcha, hot chocolate or warm apple cider. Experiment with cinnamon, honey or other seasonal flavors, or simply make something familiar that you already know you love.

Because the drink itself isn't really the point: It's having something warm in your hands on a cool morning. It's taking it with you on the drive to work or school drop-off. It's sitting outside for a few extra minutes or stepping away in the afternoon and actually enjoying what you made.

The best rituals aren't complicated. They're the little things you repeat because they make ordinary days better.

Maybe yours is the quiet cup before everyone wakes up. Maybe it's something warm in the car after school drop-off. Maybe it's the Saturday morning sideline, Sunday on the porch or the afternoon cup that signals you're almost through the workday.

Remember, fall moves quickly. The mornings get colder. The days get shorter. The calendar fills up. So make something you love. Pour it into your favorite Voyager. And take a few minutes to enjoy the moment.