Drink Me, Mr. Morning (a post by Josh)

Why do I think so much about the morning and breakfast every morning I get to my blog? Maybe because it’s a fresh start to a day, a clean slate, or maybe it’s just because. Who knows.

Speaking about Breakfast, oh blog partner, I don’t think I could go a morning without at least thinking about coffee. That doesn’t mean I have to have coffee, I just think about it. If I’m at home, my morning routine almost always consists of washing my face, brushing my teeth, contemplating what I’m going to have or make for breakfast, emptying yesterday’s filter full of coffee grounds and either setting up for a new pot of coffee, thinking about setting up a new pot of coffee, or going to the local coffee shop. No matter what, I have two or three cups of coffee in the morning. If I’m in the backcountry, hiking around in the woods, when 8am rolls around I will always be hankering for some deep roasted, milky coffee.

I haven’t decided if this is what addiction is, but I still like to think of it as a choice. Coffee doesn’t quite control me yet, I still control my urges. I think.

In terms of coffee tasting, I guess I’m not quite all that grown up yet. I don’t think I could tell you if the taste starts out with a floral aroma followed by a tractor trailer smokiness and followed by honey roasted peanuts. I can tell you that I like dark roasts more than light. I like coffee houses more than Starbucks. I can also say that I always amble on over to the shade-grown organic coffee section of my grocery store. All of these things are important to me in a coffee. If it’s Magnolia Blend, Mocha-Java or Deep Disco, I’m usually into the taste of coffee.

That’s not to say that I don’t have my aversions to some coffees. Here in my town, I know that if my coffee shop starts serving Wildcat Blend – an attempt at strong coffee with no taste – I will be off the walls for the rest of the day. Even after one cup, I will be more jittery than a scared puppy.

Where I became hooked on coffee, though, is most important to me. In my home town, there is a coffee house that sums up most of my high school years: Gimme! Coffee. I really think the name says it all. It doesn’t say: give me coffee, please. It’s “gimmme some coffee right now because I am about to snap some heads because I need my caffeine or simply… Gimme!

Gimme! has three locations in Ithaca, one of which I felt was home. Situated in downtown Ithaca, I always found myself running back there at least five times a week when in town. Thankfully there’s a “buy 9 and get one free” card, which I have been known to make use of in under a week. Don’t judge. It’s not addiction.

From here, it’s hard to tell where to go; coffee is a big idea. Not only could I speak for pages about the aroma, brewing technique, color, acidity, and finish but also the cultural connotations associated with coffee. What does “Oh yeah, you do look like a coffee drinker” actually mean?

Well, at least the conversation is started. I know there will be more, right Lyz? I also know this is the best I could come up with as far as a “recipe” for drip, filter coffee, goes:

Notes On Home Brewing Coffee
3 Tablespoons of coffee should be brewed for 8 oz of coffee. The best results with Home Brewing come with grinding your own beans. So, what this means: 3 tablespoons for about “2 cups” of coffee. The “2 cups” comes from the demarcations on the carafe of your home brewer. The whole process should take anywhere between 4-6 minutes. If its quicker than this it will be under-extracted and weak. If its slower than this it will be over-extracted and bitter.

 

Comments

  1. joan says:

    Sounds a bit like an addiction, but who am I to talk?!

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