Life before 2008 06 Feb 2006 09:31 am
my drug
That’s what caffine is you know. Addictive stuff. “It makes you crave it fortnightly” (as they say in So I Married an Axe Murderer about….Fried Chicken. But that was MSG…a whole ‘nother post).
And I crave coffee a whole heck of a lot more than fortnightly!
1 fortnight= 14 days. Hah!
For all my love of the stuff, I’ve resorted to trying to find a cheaper brand that we still enjoy. We only have one cup a day and until now have wanted that one cup to be the very highest quality we could afford. Thing was, we couldn’t really afford anymore, the expenisve little habit we’d formed. We usually buy our beans in whole form, which means it costs more per ounce than ground. Our preference is shade-grown, fair trade, organic stuff but that’s been out of our range for a daily habit for some time now. We’d settled on Starbucks Serena Organic and usually paid 7-10 dollars a bag. That took us about 10 days to use.
In a tight grocery budget, wine got nixed for being in that price range and more. Ditto the fancy cheeses. Even ice cream rarely shows it’s little pint-sized face. But I held onto coffee as long as I could.
Then, I started to feel like a snob. All those other, cheaper brands on the shelf and none of them were good enough for little ole’ us? I started experimenting.
First I tried other brands of whole beans. To get the same richness, or at least somewhat close to it, I had to use twice the amount of beans. Not exactly economical as we then went through a bag every 6 days. Then I broke down and bought a few kinds of ground.
It feeds the addiction. That’s about all I can say for it. To smell it, you have to stick your nose *in* the bag, it’s perfume has faded so drastically. The grind looks pale and like it’s been on the shelf for a long time. If one is only drinking it to get that jolt of caffine, it can be choked down times two and you will avoid the shakes and a headache. If one is drinking it to savor a warm cup of bliss on a cold morning, quietly feeling the lights come on in each biological system, it is severely lacking.
Snob indeed I supose. Or just spoiled. But there are much, much bigger problems in the world and I set my visions on frothy cups of latte to come in my financially free future and sucked it up. Literally.
Last week a package was dropped off on my doorstep. Like a drug-sniffing canine, my ears perked up first. As I picked the box up, I could faintly smell something very familiar. Rich….dark. It was from David’s Mom which always means goodies of some kind, usually hitting a need we have for the kids without anyone telling her ahead of time what it is. From my lips to God to her ears more often than not. This time though, it wasn’t from my lips…it must have just been from my heart.
The box holds valentine treats for the chickens. I set it aside for the Big Day so as to increase the excitment for them on the 14th. But I kept coming back to it. I KNEW I smelled something other than chocolate and new clothes.
And there, in one of the cellophane wrapped bags, was a bag of Starbucks Casi Cielo. Guatemalan. Dinner Coffee most often I’m sure because even inhaling it’s unbrewed aroma makes one long for a mousse topped chocolate cake. If you listen to things like wine and coffee they will tell you exactly what they want you to have with them.
This one wants to be cherished. It wants to be made in a press and allowed to quietly do it’s magic on the water. It positively cries out for a thick white mug and a little drop of cream. It won’t do to drink it fast on the way out the door. No. It wants you to take it in a quiet room and slowly sip it’s warm, dark, power. It will softly sigh across your tongue and each sip will find a different part of your body to warm and awaken. It was grown, even created, to transform and affect and it’s does it’s job very, very well.
God amazes me more often than not. A little old bean can hold so much magnificence. It’s just a tiny fragment of creation, too perfect to have been accidental, and I find it very cool that some part of God thought coffee would be a good idea to create. If rocks cry out then so do beans. This one shouts in whispers.
One cup a day. I’m listening.
on 06 Feb 2006 at 10:08 am 1.gina said …
Hey Tia,
Great blog- I’m not much of coffee drinker- just cappucinos once in a while. I hate to feel shakey like that. Even decaf bothers me. But Paul is also an addict. My mom bought him a grinder for Christmas so if we find a deal or he gets a bag of beans for a gift, he loves it more than the other stuff we buy. I think it’s more than he likes to grind it;-) He likes French roast the best. He’s not into the flavored ones, he just likes the heavier bodied ones- mud as I refer to it! We have a sweet coffee shop in the mall called Rappaportz. I do like frozen coffee drinks there. Enjoy your treat!
on 06 Feb 2006 at 10:01 pm 2.Bannergranny said …
Oh you should write for the coffee advertisers…Here it is 10pm and you make me want a cup of joe….I never knew anyone could get so much pleasure out of food and the simple things most of us take for granted…you prick my conscience and my soul….I love the pics of the grands….gosh I miss them so much….how I would love to get in the snow and play with them.
I have definately outgrown the room. It was so good to hear your voice today, even if it was short. Love ya.
Conference is almost over, the hardest night is tomorrow….my seminars have been well attended…we had to turn away about 40 people for the the second one today