I Like the Java Jive and It Likes Me

I've been thinking a lot about coffee since yesterday. My financial adviser, who is responsible for keeping me out of the poorhouse (and we all know there isn't even a poorhouse anymore) came over last night and declined a cup of coffee. He said he'd had about nine cups already. Nine cups! Yet he seems so calm.

I love coffee. I had my first taste of this luscious beverage when I was about nine years old. Mrs. Murphy said "you won't like it," but, oh, she was wrong. I remember the cup and saucer it was served in, white with yellow flowers, even though the cup contained only a few small sips. I don't know when I actually started drinking coffee, but I know I've consumed it for a long, long time.

Mrs. Murphy made the strongest coffee I've ever tasted. While the label on the coffee can says one tablespoon per cup, my mother uses one "scoop" per cup and adds an extra scoop "for the pot." I can't tell you precisely how big these scoops are, but they result in some high-powered coffee. Imagine people from NJ jacked up on coffee. Yikes!

When I was married, my husband liked his coffee weak (I could say like his women here, but that would be ridiculous), and when the Murphy clan came to visit they would politely ask that I make a pot of stronger coffee. My coffee must have seemed like, well I don't know, dishwater, pisswater, you fill in the blank here.

Now I make really strong coffee, but there's a catch; it's half decaf. My doctor told me last year to reduce stress, so I "cut" my coffee. It's a crappy street version of real coffee in some ways, but with it I can close my eyeballs for more than one second at a time. And I can shut up too, sometimes.

Which leads me to my question of the day. What's your coffee history? Or, how do like your coffee? If you don't drink coffee, tell me about your favorite beverage, hot or cold. Right now I'm sitting here with a cup of half-decaf laced with nonfat half and half. What are you drinking? Whatchu got?