Coffee Pot Galactica

I love my coffee. I can drink an entire pot of coffee before the light goes out on the maker. I’m not bragging, I’m just saying, its true. I don’t even think I really get that much of a buzz from the coffee any more if I’m still being honest. In fact, there are many days when I don’t even have coffee and get along just fine – but if there IS coffee then I’m all over it like a Flavor of Love “contestant”.

We recently switched from regular Safeway bought ground coffee to whole been coffee that you buy in those large foil pouches and grind up when you want to make a batch. That saying: “Once you go whole bean, you don’t go back” its true! There is a HUGE difference in the flavor of fresh ground beans over the soil samples that come delivered from those plastic tubs. And there was a time not too many months back when I would laugh at, and even mock the fools who would spend the extra coinage on the “better bean”… alas now I have become one of those “better bean” buying snobs. I appreciate coffee now, how I assume some people appreciate fine wines, beers, cigars, caviar, blah blah blah. I’m not like addicted to it, I mean I could quit any time I wanted – shah!

Again, not in the too distant past (a few years), I recall being someone who didn’t like the muddy liquid at all. It was bitter and harsh. The guy who liked coffee obvious hated himself and his intestines. He might as well be pouring Drano down his gullet. Then I decided to use it as a weapon against sleep for several all-night projects I was working on in my first web development job. I couldn’t tell if it worked really, but it seemed to make everyone else around me act more productive, so I bought into it.

It was during a trip to Dubai and I partook of some fine coffee they served there from minuscule kettles, that I fell in love. The steeped brew was rich and nutty, like nothing I had ever had in the States. The color was almost like a malt and you could see the texture in the body of the liquid kind of like the settlings of a Guinness. I couldn’t get the waiter to tell me what kind of coffee it was, and I could tell he didn’t care about my inquiry. They don’t take that kind of interest it seems – but I was desperate to know. So desperate that I eventually in the course of that same day forgot all about the quest. Although the mission forgotten, I remembered the body, flavor, and aroma forever.

So it came to pass that I became a more regular coffee drinker. My wife and I had a coffee pot and we’d make a pot of coffee in the morning and all was good. We often poured much of it out, but all the same, we had it in the house. But now like I said previously, a few months back we discovered whole bean coffee. A friend of ours works for Starbucks and they gave us a pound of the delicious raw black candy. It was some Sumatra Island Roast thing, and we bought a grinder special just to try it. IT TASTED JUST LIKE THE HEAVENLY DRINK I IMBIBED IN DUBAI! We were immediately sold on the un-ground coffee variety and became converts. Even if you changed coffee’s name to “Scientology Roast”, we would have lined up for some of that home brew Dianetic caffeine IV drip!

The coffee consumption levels in our home have increased dramatically. It seems to be one-sided though. My wife still only drinks a cup or two in the morning, maybe another later on if I’ve brewed more – or if she’s made an extra pot for me special. And when that happens, I take ownership of that carafe, I do. To the point where I try to subtly ask if she’d like another cup secretly hoping that she doesn’t, so I can calculate how many more precious cups, sips or drips I can consume and be filled with its nutty love.

I don’t really notice a buzz or rush from the caffeine, but it does seem to make everything better, or right. Kind of like a check list before take off. When the Space Shuttle is prepping for launch you always hear about a crack in some tank, or some leak in the hydraulic whosy-whatzit creating a delay – but I submit that these are just coverups for lack of proper coffee levels on board the shuttle. Maybe Mission Control’s all out of Tully’s – who knows. But that’s how I feel some times when I’m on my own launch pad getting ready for blast off, regardless of the hour – I may have to scrub the mission.

And really when I think about it, coffee is like foreplay for my entire day. Sure, without it I might still reach the finish line, but not everyone is going to be pleased with the outcome.

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