I love coffee. I love the smell of it, the taste of it, and the sweet, sweet jolt it administers unto my soul. As soon as I’m finished offloading cloudy pee in the morning, I head straight for the coffee pot. And there are few things more satisfying as finding some already brewed java there. It’s a rare occurrence, but it does sometimes happen.
Usually I’m the only person home, and have to make a pot myself. Which is not a problem… the problem is the waiting. Man, I hate the waiting. It feels like it takes a half-hour for it to finish brewing, and that’s a torturous limbo state, my friends.
Today I’m going to share some of my thoughts and observations about coffee, and hope you guys will add your own in the comments. So, let’s get down to business!
The morning ritual is sacred
There can be no exceptions: a goodly amount of coffee MUST be ingested shortly after waking.
Back when I would occasionally find myself in a hotel, they always had those tiny coffee makers in the rooms, with a single sack of normal-people coffee, and a bag of decaf for the weirdos. And I didn’t care for it.
For one thing, I’m convinced people piss in those carafes (is that paranoid?), and they’re never washed. And it’s also not nearly enough. Oh, it’s better than nothing, but once I’ve laid waste to the pitiful yield, I’m headed straight for the stainless steel lobby silo. So, it requires relocation and logistics, which is bullshit.
Also, I’ve stayed at peoples’ houses that don’t drink coffee, and have to prepare everyone the night before: “No offense, but as soon as I get up I’m heading straight to a convenience store or a Starbucks… so know that now, no-coffee freaks.”
It’s all unnecessarily exhausting.
But once the ritual is over, it’s over
At some point I instinctually know I’m properly caffeinated, and stop. When I was young and inexperienced, I would sometimes have one cup too many, and reach the point of diminishing returns. But I’m a pro now, and that rarely happens.
And once I’m finished with coffee for the day, I never return to it. It goes like this: hot beverages, cold beverages, alcoholic beverages (sometimes). Always in that order. After I’ve moved from one phase o’ the day, there can be no phase-jumping. I never drink coffee, have a glass of ice water, and go BACK to coffee. That’s beverage anarchy, and I can’t have it.
People who drink nothing but coffee
I’ve worked with people who chug giant tankards of the stuff continuously. They’re usually skinny, and also smoke cigarettes like the Red Chinese are in Allentown.
I once knew a guy named Fred who would arrive at work freaking wired, and continue drinking high-octane coffee throughout the night. And, he swore this was true… when he got home at 1:35 a.m. he’d brew another full pot and drink it before bed.
That’s some crazy-ass shit, right there. There must be some major receptors burned out in his central nervous system, or something. Good god. The dude probably urinates something that looks like dry Sanka crystals.
And he’s not the only one. I’ve known plenty of people who rarely go five minutes without taking another slug o’ coffee. There was a guy named Joe in California who probably could’ve benefited from an intervention. The man clearly had a problem. I always wondered if he had a Mr. Coffee on his nightstand at home.
The most baffling of these kinds of folks: the ones who mainline java throughout the day, yet are still lazy slow-moving sacks of shit. How is that possible?
The trendiness of it all
When I was a kid it seemed like only old people drank coffee. It was not a cool thing to do, and there were no hipster businesses where you could exchange a five dollar bill for a cup o’ joe/fashion accessory.
Convenience stores had a single carafe of acidic motor oil coffee going at all times, and the only people who ever bought it were truckers and guys working three jobs to keep up with their child support payments.
The first time I visited a “cool” coffee shop was in Atlanta. It was a place called Aurora, in the Virginia Highland section of town. There were no Starbucks there, and I probably had never even heard of them.
But Toney and I liked Aurora, and I actually asked her to marry me, while sitting on a bench outside the place. I’m not the type to build big dramatic scenarios, with skywriting ‘n’ shit. So I just decided to ask her at a place we both liked. I could’ve gone with a favorite bar or restaurant, but liked the idea of doing it in the morning. So, Aurora got the nod.
Of course nowadays there are coffee shops on every corner, and I enjoy ’em. But I do most of my coffee uploading at home.
The homebrew
For years we were partial to Eight O’Clock, which we’d grind in the store and that whole song and dance. It’s good stuff, and I have nothing bad to say about it. Except… it became popular and they promptly raised the price.
We also sometimes buy Dunkin’ Donuts coffee at Sam’s Club, and that’s good — but also pricey.
Mostly we just go with the Wegmans store brand, which is amazingly good and not super-expensive. Wegmans is the gift that keeps on giving.
Flavorings, etc.
I’m not a fan of novelty. When I go to Starbucks I always just say, “Large coffee, please. With room for cream,” and the guy generally gives me a nod of appreciation.
What’s wrong with just coffee? There’s no need to run it through a hissing trombone, or infuse it with foamy milk, or boolshit like that. And if there’s a dome lid involved, it’s not coffee that you like… it’s something else entirely.
I also don’t go for hazelnut, and that sort of thing. And those flavored creamers? They flat-out ruin everything the come in contact with. They’re basically a vat of chemicals and sugar, with a shot of artificial flavoring. Call me a radical, but it’s not my thing.
I drink coffee, with a splash of milk to take the edge off. Anything beyond that is showboating, in my opinion.
So, there you go. Please share your thoughts on this important subject, and I’ll see you again next time.
Have a great day!
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First, and I read the update.
I’m not a fan of coffee at all, in any iteration.
I’m fully aware that it’s probably me since it’s so popular, but so be it.
I stick to cold beverages exclusively.
Almost my entire fluid intake is diet Vernor’s ginger ale.
Vernors is the best…grew up on that stuff in Michigan.
I don’t even like to say “Good Morning” until I’ve had my first few sips of coffee.
I use the Costco brand – Kirkland Columbian. Makes a great pot of coffee every single time. I have my 1-1/2 cups at home (huge mug) then I have a cup when I get to work. Once in a blue moon, I’ll have a mid day cup but I have to be dragging ass. So I do break Jeff’s rule of hot, cold then hot again. All it takes is a good whiff of coffee and I can have a cup.
As a younger, wilder lass, I was a coffee junkie. I’m not kidding when I say a dozen cups a day was not unusual. My parents were from that generation where you made a pot of coffee after dinner with dessert. I must have grown immune because it never kept me up nor gave me the over botoxed eye look. And 25 years ago, cups were maybe 6 – 8 ounces. Not these Heissman trophy sized cups they have now.
Jeff, if you need that instant cup of coffee, those Keurig machines spit out a cup right quick, but those K cups are expensive. Yeah, it comes with the little basket thing to use your own coffee, but the screen is a bitch to clean.
Sorry that you ran out of time and also sorry that Starbucks burns the shit out of the coffee they brew. Also sorry the first commenter displayed a grasp of the fucking obvious: that he was the first commenter.
jtb
John, as a healthcare professional I worry about your well being.
The stress you must be under to be so sour all the time has to be such that it would have, by now, ground a lesser man to a fine powder.
If you’re not currently seeing a physician and/or a mental health provider who can help ease your burden, I hope you’ll consider it in the near future.
Be well my friend.
JTB may be high strung but his point is valid: Leave that “first” stuff in 2003 where it belongs.
The rest of your initial post I can sympathize with.
Jorge,
I appreciate your concern. I really do. Just as Jeff finds rolled down car windows grating, I find the “first” claim troubling. It’s nothing personal. Really a matter of taste.
And I live not many miles from Starbucks HQ. The coffee aficionados I know (and people I know who work or have worked for Starbucks) all say that Starbucks burns their coffee to achieve consistency of taste throughout their chain. And the president of Starbucks sold the Seattle basketball team to a businessman from OKC, so most Seattle sports fans avoid Starbucks like it had fleas.
I know cursing bothers some people. I write the way I talk, and the fuck-words probably make me sound a little more worked up than I really am.
Finally, Jeff is a terrific writer, and has remarkably few bad writing habits. He’s really clean. But he mentions too frequently for my taste that he’s out of time. Were that reference consistently omitted, his loving readers wouldn’t know the difference and the posts would sound less rushed (in my opinion).
I crammed all those opinions into two sentences and added a curse word or two for seasoning. I spent too many years in corporate management not to be type-A, but I’m probably a little less manic than that comment might imply.
And there was a little dust-up the other day. I don’t think I was the instigator, but I probably threw a little gasoline on the fire. The line between passion and mania is a fine one, and I might have snorted it back in 1975.
Today I’m alcohol and drug-free, and actually spend time watching birds build nests in the trees behind my house. I like machine-gun prose, but I try not to live a machine-gun life. Nonetheless, it’s nice of you to be concerned about my stress level. I see my doc every two weeks. Next visit, I’ll request a check-up from the neck-up.
Thanks again….John
I have bird feeders around the house. I really enjoy watching them and I think it caused a woodpecker to woodpeck the shit out of some carpenter bees that were making the house their house.
JTB I feel you are getting piled on lately. Nothing you can’t handle of course but damn.
When it’s on sale, I get the Starbucks “Morning Joe” and brew it at home!
You may not agree – but fresh roasted coffee is the way to go.
I don’t drink coffee past 10 am. I sometimes see people drinking it all day – or chugging energy drinks most of the day. I have never drank one of those. And I don’t see how people drink that stuff. Although – I use to drink pop. But – I stopped drinking pop almost two years ago.
WOW! All the rules, it’s like they asked “Rainman” for his interpretation of coffee. I like mine black, about 25 ounces worth, and I’m good.
I only drink it black. There is no way I would put sugar or creamer in a cup of coffee.
I don’t understand those people that have to ruin a good cup of coffee with sugar and cream either. My wife does it, and she claims that’s normal in Long Island where she grew up. I did have a waitress in NYC ask me if I wanted “regular” coffee one time, and it came with cream in it I made her take it back and give me black coffee. My grandma told me if I wanted to drink coffee, drink coffee. She always said if I wanted warm milk with sugar in it she’d make me warm milk with sugar in it.
Small cups, because I like to drink it hot. No cream, no sugar.
I’m constantly at war with myself because I have chronic heartburn, yet I love coffee. My compromise is to make coffee a treat. I don’t drink it every day and I’m a huge snob about it. I have every coffee shop in town rated in my head because when you drink your coffee black, it needs to be stellar.
I’m another one who doesn’t drink coffee. When I was a kid, I used to love a coffee-flavored ice cream they sold at Baskin-Robbins, but at some point I lost my taste for it, and that extended to the real stuff by the time I was an adult. Also, I find people who drink those fancy coffees with all kinds of flavorings, etc., to be as tiresome as wine snobs, beer “experts,” and those people who love to get into endless debates about which major American city makes the best pizza. I simply don’t have time for it…
Great update. The updates on MIFS are very much like the golden oldies on the WVSR. Enjoying it.
Never has drug use been so lovingly detailed. The paraphernalia, the intoxication, the sheer joy of it!
If you think this is nice wait until the DEA decides they need a new drug to nail people for.
Re: Coffee
I roast my own beans. There is nothing better than drinking coffee made from beans I roasted myself the night before. Yum.
Favorite brew method: Chemex pour over with a french press a close second.
How I like my coffee: Hot, black and lots of it. No adulterations please.
A man after my own heart.
I like Death Wish Coffee (not an endorsement, but yeah, if the good people of DWC want to send me free coffee, I’ll shill for them),
“Death Wish Coffee: World’s Strongest Coffee. Drink up … or the terrorists win. Tell them Darb sent ya.” http://deathwishcoffee.com/
At Starbucks, or any coffee joint, I order a Red Eye, no room for cream. Sometimes the Barista forgets and I’ll get an extra shot of espresso to make up for it.
It’s the little victories for me these days.
one cup of 2.99 per large-glass-jar of Kroger coffee per day.
I’m one of those people who drink coffee all day. I don’t usually stop until my heart rate is banging off the rev-limiter and my pulse is stuttering like Mel Tillis at a poetry reading. Out in the car? Tim Horton’s is a life giving oasis. Starbucks? Over-priced and over-roasted.
Chuck,
Funny and pithy as always. By God, I miss you and WB and the Dude. People are out here talking about naked crotches and other sensitive topics with only rare hints of humor. Please come back. Mel Tillis is my favorite p-poet.
John
Thanks, John. I’ve lately found myself in a deep funk and haven’t found much to laugh about. These updates help though. Thanks, Jeff. I’m climbing out of the hole and I’ll be around. I’ve missed everyone, also. Cheers, mate!
Being a Seattleite of course I drink coffee, a 12 cup pot in the morning with the occasional cup or two later in the day if I am out. I am considered more rebellious than chai tea drinkers though in that I drink brewed coffee black, no sugar. I brew my own and my preference is Dunkin Donuts Breakfast blend, a normal cup of coffee, not a burned soil tasting French roast. I despise Starbucks coffee. The first time I was served a cup of it in a restaurant about 30 years ago, I sent it back and suggested that it was yesterdays coffee left on the burner overnight and reduced to a burned sludge. The freshly brewed replacement was just as bad. I did become addicted to the stuff a couple of decades ago. Like so many addicts, led there by peer pressure. I had at least three quad grande lattes a day and started fantasizing about Starbucks coming out with IV packs. It took quite a lot to quit which I did because the cumulative cost of all those shots was just way out of control.
I love the smell of coffee the taste is ok and the caffeine is fantastic, the problem occurs 8 hrs later when I can feel every inch of my intestines.
I’ve tried the de-acid types the pH balanced brands and all sorts of creams and additives but nothing works. I can do the strong teas and chicory items but as far as the coffee culture is concerned I’m on the outside.
I gave up coffee during the 2nd Clinton administration, and I’ve felt better ever since. I, too, love the smell and taste, and I enjoy an occasional caffeine drink, but the acid in coffee had eaten through my stomach, and was headed south toward my still-natural crotchal area. It was time to say goodbye.
John
I imagine when you drink coffee is like the first time they cut into the facehugger in Alien.
“hissing trombone” – hilarious!
I cannot stand coffee in any form, the drink, cakes, candies, tiramisu, opera cake…. nasty stuff. However, I *do* love the smell of roasting coffee, go figure.
I need a giant mug of industrial strength tea when I awake. No namby-pamby teas, no dainty tea cups, a large mug of strong tea. I used to have what is known colloquially as a “pint pot” for my tea, the mug of choice of northern English laborers, but I broke it, and now I have to use a regular giant mug 🙁
Cold tea, iced tea, lemon in tea = crimes against humanity.
Grind Starbucks myself each night and set the programmable. Love it very strong but with much cream. Hate spending so much but it recently became cheaper in stores to compete. Once I tried it on sale and nothing else (8 O’Clock, Don Francesco’s, Dunkin) has as much kick.
Jeff you need to get a Keurig! No more waiting around…fresh brewed coffee in an instant. I have one and I love it.
I put the coffee together (b-flat Folgers Classic Roast) before I go to bed. My 5am wake-up call starts doggie’s day too and she immediately becomes spring loaded. While she boing-boing-boing-boing-boing-boings her way out to the kitchen to rocket out the back door and down the steps to her private piss & poop palace, I follow and push the button to the coffee maker. Knowing she’s good for about four or five minutes worth of Sonja Henie quality figure eights and while the coffee maker works its magic, I head to complete my first “S” of the morning’s trifecta. (I have been struggling with 47 down and 83 across this week but I’m sure I’ll eventually get them). In short order the coffee wafts, my first race is run and Harriette R. Dogg has scored a perfect 10 on the morning’s compulsories. My second and third races on any given day could establish a track record. I have a cup while I pour some into my 32oz Bubba to take to work, maybe 3/4 full and I never finish it. In fact…most of it spills on the floor of my work truck and by lunch I’ve thrown the rest out.
I love coffee, am not a snob. I will drink any kind of coffee. Black, sweetened, froo froo, etc.
The girlfriend works at a place that sells coffee from Seattle so we get a box of K-cups for the single brewmaker once per week.
I’ve always loved a good coffee shop. In Cincinnati it was Buzz Coffeeshop right off of campus and was also a used CD store.
In St. Louis it was Perk on the Park for my friend Marcus who is and was awesome. Before that it was Coffee Cartel.
OKC was just Starbucks until Beans and Leaves opened up but a coffee joint that isn’t open before 8 is dead to me.
Cleveland is just Starbucks.
In Atlanta it was the Red Light Cafe (I think) right by where a guy in a gorilla suit or clown would get you to buy shoes. It’s the place I first saw the Drive By Truckers so it’ll always have a special place in my soul.
My uncle owned a coffee place in San Francisco called Cafe Corbas. He and it are gone now. He was a great guy.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Coffee!
Cream and sugar for me. My Papaw drank karo syrup style and my Nana and dad both drink it black. Blech! No fancy syrups for me (in a 24 oz cup) I take 3 sugars and 3 creamers, simple as that.
Old folks order coffee with their meals all the time and it baffles me. Pizza and coffee. Coffee with a burger at Wendy’s, it’s crazy.
We buy the expensive shit, whole bean, and grind it at home. She grinds it until it’s like sawdust. And we sprinkle a little salt over it before brewing which makes any coffee a lot less bitter – y’all should try it.
We don’t say first anymore?? Damn. Well, at least we can talk about naked crotches right? No? Wow. What happened? I love coffee and can drink any kind but like it black. I think Starbucks is overpriced and bitter. Keurig coffee makers are the way to go at home. I have tried all of the different cups and Donut Shop Dark Roast is the best.
I’m the only coffee drinker in the house. Kirkland breakfast blend K-cups for me. At work they brew industrial coffee with twice the recommended grounds, so it can’t even be cut with water.
>When I was a kid it seemed like only old people drank coffee. It was not a cool thing to do
And how. Coffee for kids was frowned on, and even adults limited their consumption. Only two brands existed–Folgers and Sanka–and the only establishments selling the liquid were coffee shops and diners. That’s where you’d go for a coffee break at work, because companies never provided coffee or tea on site. Every meal ended with a cup of coffee, even three martini lunches and dinner. Obligatory. And coffee meant coffee. No espresso, no cappuccino, nada. It was weak, based on pre-ground beans, and brewed in a percolator with a triangular glass knob on the top that boiled it to a state of bitterness that makes Starbuck’s coffee seem like Nestle’s Kwik in comparison. Nobody drank more than a single cup at a time; nobody could *stomach* more than a single cup at a time. Coffee back in the day; gotta love it.
At my parents house my mom will offer guests coffee but not me. I can drink it, just don’t get offered.
My parents drink theirs so watered down it’s a blessing to not be asked.
I like coffee; I like tea. I like the java jive and it likes me.
On weekdays I’ll have two double shots at home. On weekends there is time for a pot; it will be either the French press or the manual Melitta cone. Once in a blue moon I’ll brew up a Ca Phe Sua Da. I do not own an automatic drip machine. (God, that sounds like “I don’t have a TV”. Pompous ass.) Apart from the CPSD, I don’t adulterate my coffee.
Starbucks’ coffee doesn’t taste good. They roast it too dark. And if you take your latte-a-day money and put it in the piggy bank, you can get yourself a fine espresso machine at the end of the year.
And sorry, but screw the K-cup machine. It’s convenient, but you don’t get much choice of coffees and it’s 75 cents a pop.
.
.
Anyone paying 75 cents per K-cups is getting robbed. Kirkland (Costco) Breakfast blend is great, and comes in around 42 cents per cup.
It ain’t for everyone, but I don’t like stale coffee and need my “medicine” periodically throughout the day, so for me, it is 42 cents well spent.
You can also use it to get a cup of hot water pretty quick if you feel like some tea bagging.
I love coffee too: sugar, no cream or milk. Somewhere in the middle of the snob spectrum I suppose. I used to buy Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf brand from the market until a local guy started roasting his own coffee and selling at the farmers market and at the two small restaurants in town. Best coffee I’ve ever had, no lie. It’s weirdly, terrifyingly good: http://jtcoffeeco.com/
The thing about cigarettes and coffee has always baffled me. When I smoked, I could drink coffee day and night and fall asleep the second after finishing a mug. Quit smoking and coffee stays in the a.m. or there’s no rest at all.
Anyone ever try brown sugar in coffee?
I usually do straight black, but we had some brown sugar on the table… and well, one thing led to another. It was actually quite tasty… just like a good cup should.
I had a co-worker who would add about six sugars and two heaping tablespoons of the powdered creamer to his coffee. I once asked him why he didn’t just drink hot chocolate instead. He got pissed and ripped me a new ass, told me he’ll drink his coffee the way he likes and I could stick my coffee up my ass. Since then, I try not to comment on other peoples habits.
I’m such a fucking liar. I love to make fun of you freaks who order fancy coffees, back in to parking spots and God forbid roast your own beans the night before? GTFO! The night before is for drinking large amounts of beer and bourbon.
WB
The coffee wars are absurd. Of course, in wars like this, WVSR vets are pro-absurdity. Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win.
jtb
One 20 oz WAWA coffee in the am, must have it.
smoke cigarettes like the Red Chinese are in Allentown. INSTANT CLASSIC !!!
In my younger days I was a hard-core coffee man (and yes, a smoker too). Could drink it all day and into the night, but since I developed minor cardiac issues (shocking!) I limit myself to only two normal cups in the morning (quit smoking 5 years ago too).
I grew up on instant coffee and still keep a small jar in the house for emergency use. While I love Dunkin Donuts and gourmet coffee (no flavors, damnit!) we switched over to a Keurig a few years ago. It’s not quite as good as drip, but we waste less and it’s ready in 30 seconds.
The trick at Starbucks is to order a medium coffee and ask for it in a large cup…plenty or room for cream and you get full value.
Longtime reader & commenter here but I can’t admit who I really am….
Anyway, I once took part in a gang bang at a hotel in Los Angeles. The girl didn’t want us to make a mess so all the guys finished in the coffee pot.
I swear on everything important to me that this is 100% true. Needless to say, I wouldn’t use the hotel coffee pot either.
Hey…so a video of “Six guys one pot” coulda got like a gazillion hits on You Tube. I do appreciate the lady for not wanting to make a mess. Classy chick and obviously not a coffee drinker.
Obviously, you’re not a golfer.
At least I’m housebroken.
After Monday’s discussion, I feel the need to ask whether her aversion to mess was related to her, uh, thicket.
I just hate coffee. It smells good in the morning and makes me ravenous. But, it all tastes nasty. Like Jay Leno, I only drink cold drinks all the time, even in winter. But, cold coffee is disgusting. I don’t own a coffeemaker for company and don’t stock instant coffee.
Once upon a time, I got my caffeine from Diet Coke, but I had to kick the caffeine habit for my health sake. I had an elevated heart rate and a heart that danced around in my chest. Now, I can function without caffeine.
My mom always drank instant coffee. She’d get up every morning at 4:30, make herself a cup o’instant and write letters to friends and family and do the daily paper’s crossword puzzle. She said it was her peace and quiet time before starting her day.
I love the smell of coffee much more than the taste….but I still have a cup or two every morning. It has to be as soon as I get up. If I wait too long, the feeling is gone. Cream and one packet of Equal. And it has to be REAL cream. Not milk. And definitely not powder. I cut down on sugar as much as I can, so I use Equal. I simply cannot drink black coffee. I don’t mind the instant stuff but when I brew it’s Dunkin’ Donuts for me.
When worked at the hospital, I drank Starbucks as the little cafe outside my office sold it . So it was convenient. Otherwise, I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. That shit will curl your hair and make your b-hole pucker. Too bitter and way too strong. Blecch.
I love coffee so much that I have far fewer rules for imbibing it. Sometimes I go back to it, sometimes I have it with a burger, and sometimes I have it from Starbucks. I usually stop drinking it when I leave for work but on days off I can drink it well into the evening. My favorite statements from above: “a bag of decaf for the weirdos,” and “no-coffee freaks.” Those exact thoughts run through my mind as well, when I am in those situations, ha. I am not fond of the flavored coffees either, but will drink them if there is no other coffee. It has to be spectacularly bad for me to not drink it…and I have had spectacularly bad. The store brand from my local supermarket is undrinkable, and I tried, believe me.
On weekdays, I drink 1 cup on my way to work, a 2nd cup around 2:00. Weekends its 2 cups in the morning while I relax on my back patio. I like the foo-foo creamers…either hazelnut or caramel. I used to put 2 Tbs in each cup, but have backed off now that I buy better coffee.
We started getting BuzzBox Coffee, not-so-cheap, organic, shade-grown coffee from Camano Island Coffee Company. If you suffer from heartburn or GERD, I highly recommed trying this company. It’s shade grown, so it has less acidity. They roast it within 24 hours of shipping it to you, which also helps. Fresh is so much better than stale. It’s also nice when you arrive home from a long day,and your monthly shipment of fresh coffee is waiting on your door step. I like to keep the FedEx box even after I’ve stashed my new coffee, just because it makes the house smell amazing.
We use a keurig machine, and have one of those refillable filters for it.
And FYI…someone once told us to store our coffee in the fridge or freezer, keeps it fresher. DON’T do it!! Coffee is SUPER absorbant, it’ll soak up ANY and ALL the smells wafting around your fridge. We got one of those air-tight pantry containers and keep it on the top shelf of the spice cabinet.
We’ve noticed a huge difference since we switched brands and storage methods.
I tried to remember when I first sampled coffee –but I just can’t. I know my mother always drank coffee and smoked cigarettes as she cleaned the house. She always had that instant coffee, which I don’t consider to be the real thing. Not even close. I also don’t smoke, as she did. However, I guess I must have been drinking coffee as a kid around the house, because it was always there.
As soon as I was out of school and had a little freedom, I would meet friends and have real coffee at little luncheon places. I started buying coffee and drinking it as I drove to work, too. For some reason, it took me a while to actually get a car with coffee-holders in it. I mean, factory-installed. I was buying used cars, and they weren’t too old; but for some reason, after about 3 or 4 unsatisfactory car experiences, the manufacturers caught on, and I think all newer cars have the holders now. (I am thankful for this.) Coffee is always brewing at my house, and I pride myself in my ability to get it down to a science –not too weak, not too strong. I had a couple of years’ stint working at a gourmet coffee shop in the mall (my favorite job) where I brewed all day, offered my own combos to customers and friends and ground beans and weighed packages. It was wonderful to walk into the shop in the morning and smell the various flavors. Not bragging here, but back then I could assist a customer who would approach me with a few coffee beans in their hand. I could sniff the beans and ask them to follow me to the appropriate bin where I would grind up an appropriate pound for them. They were always thankful. Unfortunately, with 2 kids approaching college, I could not stay at my favorite job at the mall, which didn’t pay enough for me to stay there. Yes, I did discuss opening up a similar shop with my co-worker/friend; but it never seemed to get further than the planning stage. In any case, I am in my late 60s now and still drink the regular stuff, no decaf for me. I introduced my kids to coffee-drinking at what was probably an appropriate age–their mid teens, and it has served them well. Oh, I forgot….I never quite trusted anyone who said that they didn’t like coffee. I am serious about this. What’s NOT to like? How can you sit down with someone and relax and have a long talk, if not over coffee? I respect tea-drinkers…but deep down I know there is something wrong with them.
Anyhow, without giving away what my grown kids do in life….I’ll just say that they are respected and considered successful in this world. And they drink coffee, of which I am so very proud.