Sokay, 10 years ago I hadn’t had a Really Good cuppajoe. Now I have…and it’s not Starbucks.
I’ll sink pretty low depending on how bad I need the caffeine, (that’s not coffee, it’s lukewarm brown water!) but I know there’s a pot brewing at home that still makes me involuntarily shiver when I take that first sip.
No sir, I’m not addicted. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Usually I consider coffee a fallback caffeine delivery system, when good tea is not available. I do like coffee with something sweet, say with a muffin for breakfast, or with dessert. I’m afraid that my coffee preferences are terribly untrendy:
And, I’ll admit, I am partial to lattes. My excuse is that I need more calcium in my diet. So I’m doing it for my health. Yeah. That’s the ticket.
I like my coffee like I like my men - hot, black and African. Truly. (You should meet my husband!) I do like a little mocha java so the rule is not 100%, but close enough to it.
I don’t really like South American coffee but will drink it if necessary.
I buy fair-trade beans, medium to dark roast, usually Ethiopian, but am anemable to Kenyan or whatever else might be offered from the Continent of Delicious Coffee. (Second Cup had some Rwandan that was pretty good, tho not fair trade.) Buy by the half-pound, grind every day to make a cup in my french press at home. I drink it all when it’s really hot, once it’s cooled a bit it’s no good. The travel mug is not only for environmental reasons, but so that that the temperature will remain hot so that I can take a while to enjoy it. The travel-mug french press is the most amazing invention, ever, and I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to haul my ass down to the camping store to see if I can buy one.
Instant coffee is an abomination. The only thing more offensive to me than instant coffee, is the time I ordered a coffee and watched in horror as the “barista” filled a mug with milk, scooped in some Nescafe, and then frothed it with his cappuccino machine.
When I’m not at home I’m a bit more flexible, but usually will only drink coffee from a chain or from a shop where I know it’s good and fresh. Right now, for example, this thread has set my coffee sensors going, and now I have to stop what I’m doing and go get a mug of Timmy’s. There is always a fresh pot in the kitchen but the co-worker who makes it, Og bless him, seems to have absolutely no idea how to make a pot of coffee. It looks and tastes like dishwater. Despite the fact that it’s free, and twenty feet away, I will still make the trip into the Muzac-filled hell-hole of a mall where I can find me some Tim Hortons.
On that note … I gotta go …
I’m fairly picky. I choked down a cup of instant at my dad’s. He thinks Nescafe’ MEXICO blend is some kind of special shit. But it’s not. It’s just shit.
I drink Eight O’Clock Columbian – sometimes freshly ground at the store. I must have French Vanilla cream in it. And I only drink it at home. It makes me pee something fierce.