If I was in a weird situation where I was forced to choose one beverage to have for the rest of my life, and water didn’t count, I would choose coffee. I wouldn’t think twice about it. There are some runners up, beer, Diet Dr. Pepper, Arnold Palmers, seltzer water (I like lemon flavor. Don’t care about the brand). However, coffee is my number one.
I started drinking coffee, I think I was a senior in high school. My dad and step-dad drink it but I don’t remember them doing so. I’m not really sure where the idea came from but I started drinking coffee with just a little bit of creamer. I didn’t feel like it was “waking me up” as that’s never really been an issue for me but I really just liked the taste. I liked the slight bite and the warmness. We had a Keurig and that’s what I used.
My first year at Bowling Green, some time in November I was standing in line at Starbucks and saw they had this thing called a “Gingerbread Latte”. I had never had a latte before but knew I liked gingerbread and so I gave it a shot and boy was that a mistake. Because I became hooked on them. It’s a drink that actually went out of rotation on the Starbucks holiday menu for a long time before returning this year. So in that time, I started to learn about espresso and how that works.
These days, I drink my coffee in a number of different ways. Most of the time it’s just normal black coffee. I have preferred brands, Starbucks and Peet’s. The only brand that I’m not nearly as high on as others is Dunkin’. Just doesn’t land correctly on my palate. Usually 2 or 3 cups from the Keurig or replace one of those with a pull from the espresso machine.
The one thing that I have never really related to was the reaction to caffeine. There are days where I don’t actually get to the coffee until lunchtime and I don’t notice a difference. I’m sure if I stopped caffeine for a couple days in a row I would get some headaches but it’s not something I have to get to at a specific time every day.
I think in a lot of ways, it just connects with my “morning person-ness”. Sitting down in front of the computer to start my work, with a cup of coffee next to me, just feels like walking into my zone. I’m fortunate to have that and to have adopted it early in my life.