Concerning a bean-derived beverage

Thanks to spousal encouragement, I am subjugating myself to writing this evening. I thought it only fair that I give adequate attention to the topic of coffee, a well-loved beverage of mine. I will probably write frequently about coffee since I now identify myself under the moniker of "coffee connoisseur."

I can still recall the exact moment in time that my taste buds realigned themselves during my youth to accommodate the flavor of coffee. As a child and up to my middle teenage years, I had always been disappointed with this drink. When I would smell coffee beans/grounds, I imagined a completely wonderful drink, "perfect in every way" (-Marry Poppins) However, tasting the brewed drink was a bitter, acidic experience; my senses reeling from the deceitful smell. In order to be potable, coffee would take an incessant amount of taste tweaking by means of adding sugar and milk, something I viewed as an exercise in futility and further increasing the unpredictability of how the coffee would taste. Clearly, I was attempting to make cheaply brewed coffee GOOD.

These experiences conditioned my mind to view coffee as a "grown-up" drink, something sipped during Sunday School and social events. Coffee wakes the mind and mars the breath - nothing more.

Of course, when you grow up, you change. I remember one evening, my mother brewed coffee to accompany the chocolate-chip cookies that she had just baked. Cookie baking had become a sort of ritual at the house due to the advent of bulk cookie dough being sold at Sam's Club and local grocers. It had become as easy as slicing up some Jimmy Dean sausages and throwing them in the pan. Pilsbury & Co applied the "sausage roll" principle to their dough packaging and VOILA! - cookies every night. On this particular night, I riskily chanced trying a cup of coffee to go with the sweet dessert. I must say, I was in for a surprise because my brain forged a new neural path as I took that first sip of black, un-doctored coffee after the bite of cookie. The slightly bitter, roasty taste of the coffee complimented and offset the sweetness of the cookie!

I was hooked. I realized that if the coffee I drank was of decent quality, the smoothness in taste increased and the unwanted, bad tastes were no longer present. Also, in league with my burgeoning love for coffee, some good friends presented me with some coffee from Brazil, a souvenir of a recent mission trip. I'll never forget the consequence of my ignorance as I brewed the highly-caffeinated coffee during the evening hours and found great difficulty in falling asleep. During all of this time, I changed my modus operandi to consumption of black, unadulterated coffee. I began to appreciate the taste of the brewed beverage by itself.

For those of you who know the jobs I have held, you might remember that I was employed at Starbucks Coffee Company during 2003 - 2004. Although my time there was short, I was introduced to and became familiar with several methods of brewing coffee. In subsequent posts, I will detail these methods in an attempt to document my own coffee experiences and to additionally provide supplemental knowledge to those who are aspiring coffee-lovers.