Where do you get your coffee from?

[angus]

ALDI.  Grind it myself.  Brew it myself.  Every day.

 

[angus]

6:00AM

Impressive.

Starting this year, the boy's bus comes at 7:37, and they have been fairly prompt so far.  If we arise by 7, it's okay, but every minute's rest after that causes us to have to rush.  Luckily, my winter reprieve started a week ago, and my son's will start in about a week. 

When I need a fast cup to go, I stop at his dentist's office, about 500 meters from my house, and brew myself one for free.  They have a little Keurig fast coffeemaker and some decent cups.  Lately, he always has Green Mountain Wicked Winter K-Cup.  If I'm not in this neighborhood, I stop at Wells-Fargo bank on Manor Avenue, or the one on Fruitville Pike.  Those two places also always have free, fresh-brewed K-cup coffees as well.  And so far neither of those places have bounced me for just coming in and getting a cup of coffee.

As I understand it, if we stay in this school district, we'll be up at 6ish in a few years.  Thank goodness for coffee, for the Ethiopians who discovered it, for the Arabs who popularized its usage, and for the French and Spanish colonizers and their African slaves who painstakingly cultivated it in the Americans for you and me to enjoy.

[angus]

our prophet called coffee drinking a sin.

more of a weakness.  I guess it's all about moderation.  The problem with Americans is that we're the same way with coffee as we are with booze, houses, money, food, and everything else.  If one is good, then many must be better.  I'm especially weak when it comes to caffeine, alcohol, and spice.

When I lived in Boston, I often hung out at Someday Cafe.  ("A good cup of Joe" cost 79c back then.  Sometimes I'd break the monotony and have chai.)  From time to time I'd visit 1369 cafe--so named because of its address--where they had a drink called Instant Death.  It consisted of a 16-ounce strong coffee (Americano), with a long shot of the espresso of the day (often Ethiopian, always ground immediately before use.  No sugar.  No milk.  Best coffee ever.

These days I brew my own, either at home or at the office.  At work I use the reverse osmosis water office from my lab across the hall from my office.  It's pure enough so that I don't have to ever clean the coffeemaker.  I wouldn't drink it straight, but I think using it for brewing is fine.  At home my water is softer, so I just use tapwater here.

I am going to the mall tomorrow to begin Christmas celebration, American-style, with unchecked consumerism.  Will probably stop at Wells Fargo on Oregon Pike en route for a fresh cup.  Of course, I'll have already drunk about half a pot at home before that happens, wretched sinner that I am.

[angus]

What I find remarkable is that she called it a sin.  She didn't just say it was unhealthy; no, it was "sin"!  She also said that eating between meals was "sin", yet I have never found a verse in the Bible that says "Thou shalt not snack."  It's ridiculous, unbiblical and extrabiblical rules like this that have made me look into the Seventh Day Baptists more.

Well, extrabiblical sources have historically been taken pretty seriously.  For example, the Councils of Nicaea laid down a political agenda that was taken very seriously in the early church.  Also coffee, tea, and alcohol are specifically mentioned in Joseph Smith's "Word of Wisdom" which is considered canonical by at least one subset of Christians. 

If the prophet is really a prophet, then she probably has lots of information that you don't have.

[angus]

Instant coffee is disgusting. 

I agree.  I have noticed it mostly in Central America.  It's weird.  I have been in Guatemala and couldn't find a proper cup of coffee anywhere, even as I was surrounded by coffee-growing plantations.  In that part of the world you have to ask for "café Americano" which is taken to mean strong coffee, brewed properly, with no sugar and no milk.  They have other words for brewed coffee with sugar or with milk or not so strong.  If you want it really strong ask for "café expresso" which is what the eye-talians call Caffè  Espresso.  If they don't have proper coffee, then they'll just shake their heads and say "tenemos Nescafe, nada más."  Really?  We're standing in the middle of a coffee-growing field.  How can you not have proper coffee?

The Keurig maker coffee isn't too horrible.  That's what they have at Wells-Fargo, and it's fast.  More importantly, it's free.  I prefer my regular drip coffee from my own machine, though.  I make it as strong as I want and I drink as much as I want.

[angus]

The coffeemaker doesn't take up much room and wasn't particularly expensive.  In my office it sets next to my tiny toaster oven on top of the tiny microwave which is on top of a tiny refrigerator.  At home, it actually sits next to the electric kettle.  We use the electric kettle at home for rapidly boiling water fairly often.  I don't drink a huge amount of tea, but I am married to a woman who comes from the original tea drinking culture, so I have it once in a while.  Tea makes my mouth dry and makes me pee too much, but it works in a pinch.  If I try to go a day without coffee, I get a bad headache.  If I'm in a place where a cup of Joe is hard to find--China, for example--then I'll make due with a few cups of tea just to avoid the headache.