A blog post about coffee?

I’m between places to live, ready to transition between cities with different climates, trading hurricanes for tornadoes, out of a job and almost into a very different one. So, why wouldn’t I be pondering coffee as it rains all week?

“There were some problems only coffee and ice cream could fix.” ― Amal El-Mohtar

I didn’t grow up in a coffee drinking culture.  Actually, Starbucks took off in our country in the 2000’s. Our national coffee culture is a relatively recent trend. Now, everyone is walking around with a coffee. It’s difficult to even go to church without walking past a coffee stand in the lobby! As of 2024, daily coffee consumption in America has increased by almost 40%. Coffee consumption is now at its highest level in more than 20 years.

My grandparents had coffee each morning. When her sister or friend would come for a mid-morning visit, my grandmother would have a fresh pot brewed and they would sit at her kitchen table talking and laughing. I still remember the sounds. Coffee was brewed in pots. No dripping in Mr. Coffee’s or Keurig’s. But at home, no one was drinking coffee. In fact, mornings were sort of an “every man for himself” experience.

In college, my soon-to-be wife was a coffee drinker. Forty years ago, there were no cool coffee shops around campus. You had to make it yourself in your dingy apartment. I don’t even think they had invented coffee cups for on the go?? She was raised in a big-time coffee culture at home. Once we got married, that Mr. Coffee was dripping away. We went through those machines like AC filters. Coffee was black and in a big mug. Sometimes I’d share a cup in the morning, but always heavily augmented. What you might call a “milky coffee” – and the edge taken off with some sweetener. What a wimp!

“Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” ― Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

My mother-in-law was an epic coffee drinker

I don’t remember ever seeing her drink anything but hot, black coffee. She drank it all day and all night. Who knows how this habit developed. Maybe the water was undrinkable in Oklahoma?

We’d be at a restaurant, and she’d order coffee. I got in the habit of grabbing the waiter by the sleeve before he/she rushed off and explaining the need to get a fresh pot brewing and to bring it on each visit to the table – she was going to go through it like water and wanted it constantly heated up. Who wouldn’t? It was always fun when we were all together at the house to see the race for who would make the next pot – mom and each of her three daughters brewed it at a different intensity. But that coffee maker was always sputtering away.

For some reason my kids decided to go off their Keurig machine and brew a whole pot each morning before zooming off to work. Maybe they were each filling large travel mugs on their way out the door. Anyway, I inherited their Keurig. That was the start of my solitary coffee drinking here at home.

I have frequented our neighborhood Starbucks for years

Grabbing something quick on the way to work or an errand a couple times a week. I’m the only one who thought my regular order amusing, a “short blond” and when I was feeling under the weather a “tall Early Grey.” After the COVID lockdown, the Keurig had arrived, my schedule changed and online ordering made quick trips hard to predict. I’d look through the glass and see an empty store with no line and think I could just whip in and whip out. How was I to know there were 400 online orders ahead of me?

“It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.” ― Dave Barry

These days I think about the coffee drinking in my family as I shop for more k-cups at the store. How can I be out this quickly? Who’s drinking all this coffee? While I’m not anywhere near the level of my mother-in-law, I’m very much drinking more cups than ever before. I’m even stocking decaf for evening consumption. Sounds like I’ve moved to a new level. A habit has formed.

When you shop for coffee today

…you find varieties advertised from all over the world. Even from the intestinal tract of an Asian cat! Coffee originated from Africa and made its way to the rest of the world through trade with the Arab world. One route took coffee drinking through Egypt, North Africa and then Spain. Another carried the custom up to what is now Turkey and on into Europe. Apparently, Ethiopian monks started drinking it to stay awake during their all-night meditations.

“Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in your hand and you start to sneeze? ” ― Jean Kerr

My wife drank it big, learning it from her mom. Having a Starbucks around the corner was just what she needed. It even worked during chemo when she couldn’t stand coffee and instead went for one of their “refreshers.” We should have bought stock in that company. Despite 35 years of her intense coffee drinking, I never really picked up the habit. The inheritance of their Keurig when the kids moved five years ago was probably the instigator. Made the habit easy to start. I think I’m on my third machine now. I wonder if maybe I’m drinking 3-4 cups of coffee a day to keep the spirit of my wife vibrant in the house.

It’s afternoon, the rain has stopped for now and I have a mug sitting here with me as I type. It’s almost the next best thing.

“No one is ever really lost as long as their story still exists.” ― R. M. Romero