It says a lot that my only complaint today involved coffee.
The weather was great. It was unseasonably warm but we were blessed with humidity that had fallen to “tolerable” from “God has forsaken us”. (An actual level; look it up.)
My usual waiting to go to work coffee shop was full and the one table that seemed to be opening up was occupied by a man that seemed to be starting a proper hoard and it was going to take him days to clean it.
Instead I went to a place at the other end of the building. I’d been meaning to go there before because they seem to advertise only coffee and pizza. Once inside I found an impressive oatmeal raisin cookie and ordered an iced coffee to go with it.
To my horror, the iced coffee was half milk. I thought they’d made a mistake, but every one on either side of me had ordered either tea or a concoction involving an Aeropress or a French press so I deduced that I’d received what I ordered.
However, because I was in a good mood, and because there was enough coffee to make the milk brown, I accepted it in good faith. Later, thanks to the shop’s generous second drink pricing, I got an espresso to properly satisfy the caffeine addiction.
Then I had to go to work. I’ll probably go back to that shop, mostly because they have free wi-fi that doesn’t require registration, but I’ll try ordering iced coffee with no milk just to see what happens. It could be fun, but it will depend on what mood I’m in.
I am afraid we’ve gotten a bit on the snobbish side when it comes to coffee. There was a brand at the local store that we liked… it vanished for a while, and when it reappeared some months later, it was not the same. We tried every brand the store carried. Understand that we live in a small town (population: 3278. Yee Haw), so the selection is not the greatest to begin with. After trying everything the town could offer (at that time, there were three grocery stores… down to two, now), we turned to the interwebs. We ended up getting a shade grown, fair trade, organic Arabica blend that we liked. In fact, we liked it enough that we signed up for a wholesaler’s license (being self-employed and having a business license has a few perks). Now we order a 30 pound box of roasted beans that we grind and brew every morning, and again every evening. I prefer my coffee hot and black, The Wife likes it cold with her goat’s milk. The pot from the evening is left out and off for her. The pot in the morning is mine. Then we get to the broom shop and brew another pot. Anything left from the previous day is turned into Coke Black (about a decade ago, Coca Cola put out a product that was half coffee and half Coke, and I quite liked it… the only way I ever really liked Coke… of course, the discontinued it).
But, I digress… What I wanted to say is that we freeze coffee into ice cubes to make iced coffee that is not watered down.
I also wanted to display a bit of solidarity for my coffee loving friend halfway ’round the globe.
My, but that was long-winded…