Coffee

Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and it can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte). It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is a popular alternative.

While coffee is native to Ethiopia and Sudan, the earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking as the modern beverage appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines. It was in what is now Yemen that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a manner similar to how it is now prepared for drinking. But the coffee seeds had to be first exported from East Africa to Yemen, as Coffea arabica is thought to have been indigenous to the former. The Yemenis obtained their coffee via Somali traders from Berbera (who in turn procured the beans from the Ethiopian Highlands) and began to cultivate the seed. By the 16th century, the drink had reached Persia, Turkey, and North Africa. From there, it spread to Europe and the rest of the world.

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds or berries from certain Coffea species.

The genus Coffea is native to tropical Africa (specifically having its origin in Ethiopia and Sudan) and Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

The two most commonly grown are C. arabica and C. robusta.

Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. Dried coffee seeds (referred to as ‘beans’) are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and then brewed with near-boiling water to produce the beverage known as coffee.

I keep seeing these memes about coffee on social media. Can’t live without coffee or step away from me until I have that first cup makes this beverage sound dangerous.

I too have followed the coffee rout. Every appliance to drip water over beans have been purchased and used.

My mother drank coffee. The tin pot percolating on the stove was a constant. It was an ‘adult’ drink so I never tasted it. She and my brother got a giant urn in the kitchen and started counting calories so he could lose weight to get into college.

Coffee by itself is dirty water and has no calories.

It worked and off he went to the cadet corps in the mountains.

In college I started drinking tea. It was the same thing of stained water but took more complex preparations than pouring some grounded A&P canned coffee in a wire basket and put on the stove to boil.

I ran a coffee house with teas and coffees and chips and pretzels (non-alcoholic being a religious establishment). Tea and coffee are both cheap drinks so one could consume lots of dirty water without much cost.

By marriage time, coffee started becoming a ritual every morning (remember an ‘adult’ drink). There was a coffee/doughnut shop next to my employer and I’d stop in to get a cup of Joe and a honey bun every morning.  After a while I realized how much I was spending on a couple of gulps of dirty water and starting bringing a thermos. No matter, cold coffee is not the choice of kings.

At home experiments with ground beans of many varieties, French press, espresso just as everything else was being experimented.

One of the first appliances for this new house was a coffee pot. It seemed this was a must to get through the day but even with sugar and cream was not very tasty. It was a ritual rather than a boost to get the day started.

When society decided coffee was the drink of desire and baristas popped up on every corner making blonde roast, café misto, dark roast, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, mocha, frappuccino in short, tall, grande, venti and  trenta. One must carry (at all times) a Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid with some logo of a Neptune’s daughter that will also fit in your car’s cup holder (not to be confused with your CD player).

I’ll admit a good cup of coffee can be a warm treat of cozy, but most of it is slugged down before it gets cold. Every New Year one of my resolutions was to buy a new coffee cup (along with a new pen). Through the years there have been many varieties of ceramic and chrome holders of hot dirty water, but the adventure has faded.

As anyone I enjoy a good cup of coffee after a filling meal to calm down the frantic chomping and swallowing to sit back and let it all settle. Some of the best coffee is the morning after greasy spoon with free refills. A good conversation can go on forever with free refills.

Now I’ve gone instant.

Heat up some water, put in half a packet of fake sugar, a spoonful of brown powder followed by a half spoonful of white powder and there is my morning drink. Hot dirty water.

It taste sweet and does the job of hot water in the morning.