I love coffee, we’ve grown old together. Our relationship is a long one. I started drinking coffee at the age of twelve but my first taste was much earlier.
At my great grandmother’s house, I toddled around with a plastic cup of milk. From the kitchen, I heard a happy voice, “Coffee’s ready! Come and get it!” I moved with the adults into the kitchen, tiny yellow cup in hand, waiting to get my coffee.
When it was my turn the adults hesitated, but after my firm insistence, a few drops of coffee were poured into my milk cup. “She’s not going to like it” a voice from above me boomed. “I didn’t put enough in there for her to taste anything” another whispered.
The first voice was right. My face puckered as the milk hit my taste buds. Repulsed by the bitterness, I passed my tainted cup up into the crowd of adults and walked away.
In the mid-nineties, coffee came back into my life in the form of the Starbucks blended Frappuccino. To a twelve-year-old, this sweet concoction was basically a coffee milk shake. You could get them with extra toppings and all the sugar hid the bitterness of the coffee.
Once again, coffee was my good friend when I entered the workforce. Sixty plus hour weeks with spit shifts and long days were saved by caffeine. I poured coffee into me like fuel when I didn’t have time to eat. Eventually, I was up to drinking an entire pot of coffee on my own in an 8 hour work day. I loved coffee, however, these habits were completely unhealthy.
Coffee had been a gateway for sugar consumption when I was younger. Now that I’m on the keto diet, sugar is out of the picture, I take my coffee with heavy cream, MCT coconut oil, and a bit of stevia. I like my home made coffee better what I can order at a shop.
Over the years I’ve found a happy balance, mostly because I can no longer handle as much caffeine as I used to. I even cut coffee off completely for a few months when I started the keto diet.
Paying close attention to my body has helped me to learn what’s best for me. Most mornings I have one “real cup of coffee” – a small mug with caffeinated coffee. If I want coffee after 11 am, I go for “the fake stuff” – decaffeinated.
Coffee is still my friend we just realized we were spending a little too much time together.
Sweet post … My coffee regime is pretty much the same… sometimes I’ll have two decafs, though, one infused with some cocoa lol
What is the me to diet? Not one I have heard of. I do respect the importance of people figuring out what works for them. Most nutrition studies seem too broad and generalized. It’s taken me many years to learn what suits me best, and as i age I still have to make adaptations. In my case a morning coffee only just got added a few months ago when I was forced to cut down my dose of thyroid supplement. It’s now a pleasant ritual, ery dtrong with just a touch of sweet cream. The rest of the day is devoted to my lifelong preference for strong plain black tea.
I can relate 🙂
I started drinking coffee in high school. I went to a private school that didn’t mind student coffee drinkers. But then I went through a tea phase, but switched back to coffee.
Most of my adult years I only had 1 or 2 cups per day, just with milk. No sugar. I instead was a bit of heavy alcohol drinker during off-work hours. But then I had to pretty much quit alcohol, so coffee consumption increased. I drink my coffee with less and less milk, and even often drink plain espresso. I’m not really supposed to be drinking that much coffee with my bipolar illness, but at least I don’t drink alcohol anymore.
I started coffee at 6. The only times I have stopped was my pregnancies and breastfeeding. Then I went for the fake stuff (decafe). Like you, it hides way too many hidden calories with all that sugar. But I do firmly quit before noon these days.
Coffee is my very very good friend also. I love the taste and the aroma. I love coffee candies, coffee ice cream, hot coffee, cold coffee, chocolate covered espresso beans…
I echo this completely! I worked nearly full-time during the last year of my undergrad and I foolishly overloaded my course schedule. I imbibed so many chocolate raspberry K-cups that I nearly get panic flashbacks when I smell that coffee now! I’m happily down to a cup each day but definitely still use it as a crutch when I’m having a dopey (read: under-stimulated) day and need a kick in the butt.
I don’t think I could live without coffee. 🙂 I’ve even told my kids to use a empty coffee tin for my ashes so I can smell the coffee. 🙂
I love my coffee too!!
Ah coffee, one of my major weaknesses! I haven’t ventured to the dark side yet (decaf!!) great post 🙂
great post. thanks for liking my blog too x
Thank you
Entertaining post I enjoyed reading. Being an Englishman I’ve had a long and intimate relationship with tea and like you I have clear memories watching my Grandfather make a brew in his teapot.
☕️🍵
I love coffee too but my body has decided it would rather not have it, so I have switched to green tea to get my daily allotment of caffeine. The caffeine hits me differently with the tea. I, no long, have the edgy feeling but am still alarm.
I’m 100% pro-coffee. But real coffee, homemade, brewed. As a Brazilian, I grew up drinking coffee. A latte as a kid, every morning before going to school. Black now that I’m over sugar and sweeteners, and dairy. No more reflux, no more heartburn. Coffee is my anti-anxiety medication.
There is a super cheap brand of instant coffee that Wal-Mart sells in America that has no bitterness. I still sweeten it too much, but I’m with you on loving coffee but not the bitter.
Yep, I know this one – seven years of night shifts 25 years ago has left me hopelessly addicted. I get blinding headaches after a day without coffee! I switch to decaff after 6 pm but could not cope if I did it at 11am! 🙂
Reblogged this on American Badass Activists.
I love coffee as well. But the caffeine… my anxiety is so bad right now and after my regular macchiato upside down iced, I get a lil CrAzY!!! But my love is real… and decaf just doesn’t do it for me.
Heh. Nice, soft writing. Interesting to follow. I’ll have some tea now!
Does coffee calm you down like it does me?
It used to.
It’s a stimulant, like Ritalin, and stimulants have the ironic effect of calming hyperactivity and creating focus. Probably from pushing the positive-feedback system into the crash part of the cycle.
Love love ☕️!!
Interesting… I just started a ketogenic diet today! I used to be a massive coffee consumer but had to slow it down due to stomach troubles as I got older.
My daughter had to give up coffee for health reasons but when she gets that yen for coffee she has Dandelion and Chicory together and treats it like coffee. Have you tried that yet?
I have not. Love the decaf
Very well written post! Thanks for sharing 😊
I like my homemade coffee better than most that I can order at a shop too! I usually drink iced cafe latte with skimmed milk, so that I can do without sugar or flavorings.
I go drip coffee at small, nice coffee shops during weekend – nice to sit with my laptop, and do observation skill on people walking outside. Weekdays, it’s all “work coffee” 🙂
Sounds amazing.
I want to do things that make me healthy and they say drinking coffee black is how you reap health benefits from it but ummmm…I don’t think my relationship with coffee could handle such an upheaval!!! It already suffered when I had to go dairy free, it’s never been quite the same. sigh.
I dear umber as well.
I like my homemade umber better than most that I can purchase order at a store too!
I use milk, not for flavor but to cool it down!
I LOVE burning hot coffee. I had a meeting at a coffee shop the other day and burned the skin off my mouth. Oops. Too hot.
this is so cofee-licious! loved it!
Only a true connoisseur can understand love for coffee! Also, one thing that is even better than a cup of coffee is a cup of coffee with a conversation with friends. Check out this post: https://columntribe.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/a-break-from-everyday/
Inspiring article ! well done 🙂
I recently started drinking Yerba Mate, a sort of tea-like infusion from Central/South America, to help ween off drinking so much coffee. I wrote an awesome article about the drink’s ability to offer mental clarity and improve focus over at https://stephendiagram.com/2017/10/28/yerba-mate-the-super-drink-with-the-strength-of-coffee-the-health-benefits-of-tea-and-the-euphoria-of-chocolate/
Nice! Coffee is one such thing that always springs up beautiful memories not to mention best of conversations! Please read this post as to how coffee blends magic into life: https://columntribe.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/a-break-from-everyday/
Wonderful
It’s cool to hear your coffee story. I hated coffee until my late twenties. I was in Nashville at a writing convention and a buddy I was staying with made me a cup of coffee and gave it to me for the road. I thanked him but then told him I would not be drinking it. He said “just try it.” I took it with me on the road in about 7 sips and I said “Hmmm… this is good.”
Mind you was full of cream and sugar which made it go down easier but I cannot deny the fact that I was hooked at that point.
When I got home to Ohio I went to Walmart and bought a Mr. Coffee coffee maker, went on eBay and got the same exact red KitchenAid grinder that he had, the Starbucks House Blend beans, and the same crappy caramel vanilla creamer, and Splenda.
Every time someone would come over I would make them the same concoction and wait for their response. I knew that the windows of Heaven would open the same way it did for me but it wasn’t ever the same response that I had.
I realize now I look like Buddy the elf taking his girlfriend to the world famous cup of coffee place.
Thank you for sharing. Great story, very visual! LOVE IT!