Coffee, tea, and me

Catching up on some old business on a completely uneventful day--work and napping--I dip into the nearly empty sack of reader questions. Donna inquires, "When you go knitting at the coffee shop, what's your drink of choice?"

I have a totally boring answer for this question, but perhaps the power of punctuation can jazz it up. When I go knitting at the coffee shop, my drink of choice is...coffee! More often than not I'll order a dark roast regular coffee and add a little half and half to it. I try to avoid something bigger than a medium/regular/grande to keep me from getting the jitters. I can usually nurse one of these for an hour or so, which is plenty of time for a solo session of public knitting.

Occasionally I will get a hot chocolate, latte, or mocha; however, those drinks aren't quite as good once they've cooled, something more likely to happen if the beverage is poured in a mug for in-store consumption. Yes, I realize it's ridiculous that I've given this much thought to it.

It's probably been two months since I've gone to a coffee shop to knit. I've been busy, for one thing. Buying a French press (#24) and grinder have seen me making coffee and tea at home most of the time. (Currently I'm partial to Starbucks Christmas blend and TehKu's Earl Grey De La Creme.) It's a less expensive way of indulging in the good stuff. Right now the only time I'm buying coffee on the go is prior to seeing a movie at A.M. Cinema. The theater employees haven't raised any objections about bringing in an outside drink, but I figure that carrying in my own thermal mug might be pushing it.

I've developed a taste for coffee and enjoy it as a daily or semi-daily drink, but it's not something I need to get me going in the morning. Not usually. I didn't start drinking it until late in high school. Even then it was something I'd get occasionally when out with friends. (There was a 24-hour donut shop where we would hang out from time to time.) I didn't drink it regularly through college, although I imagine I had it more then. This was in the midst of the national coffee craze, when shops were sprouting like weeds.

I'm not sure when I started liking it without being dressed up with a lot of sugary syrups and such. Maybe it's when I had a decent cup of the stuff. The first time I remember drinking it was one of the many times my grandmother served the Rotary club. (She did this week in and week out for decades. She always made enough extra that my family would come and eat in the church kitchen or Sunday school classroom.) It was probably Folger's or Maxwell House coffee from a big percolator. Yuck. Coffee wasn't around at home. My dad doesn't drink it, and I don't remember my mom having it much when I was a kid. She keeps it around now, except it's always decaffeinated.

Fascinating, eh?