One More Cup...

Having worked at Starbucks for four and a half years, and not being a coffee drinker before that time, I admit - I was utterly and completely spoiled.  I turned into a coffee snob overnight.  I admonished my trucker dad when he dumped spoonful after spoonful of powdered creamer into his coffee.  "Don't you want to taste the coffee?!" I gasped, watching the mug's contents grow more and more pale.  He simply cast a withering glance over his glasses and said, "I've been drinking this stuff for forty thirty-five years.  I know what I like."  I flounced past Crazy Mocha, Caribou, and mom-and-pop coffee shops as though they were serving dishwater in china cups.  I spent hours of my own time as well as paid time getting to learn the differences in regional coffees - the intimate details of each different blend - the perfect pairing for each type of coffee.  I worked my way up to the coveted title of "Coffee Master".

Of course, all that changed when I lost my job.

No longer could I afford my Iced Triple Tall One Raw Sugar Americanos.  Although I found another job very quickly, I balked at spending $4 on a beverage.  Suddenly I was one of them.  The other.  The customer.

Almost immediately, the high-and-mighty, cavalier coffee supremacist dissolved and was replaced with the slob who was totally cool with microwaving the last few ounces of the cold Giant Eagle cappuccino that she'd picked up on the way to work.  Suddenly, my version of "iced coffee" was brewing a whole pot and then returning two days later with some ice cubes and a spoonful of sugar.  

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Don't get me wrong; my nose is still sharp.  I can still distinguish between a Colombian coffee and a Kenyan one.  I still have a good grasp on which coffees taste best with chocolate, and which are better paired with cinnamon, or nuts.  Even if they don't bear Starbucks on the label.  In fact, I've had the pleasure of meeting with some former and current Starbucks partners (employees) as a newer barista is working her way through the Coffee Master program.  It's great fun, both trying all the coffees again and meeting with old friends.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings me to the whole point of this post.  So many of us drink coffee daily and utterly take it for granted.  It's our morning sunshine when there is no sun, our afternoon pick-me-up, our indulgent treat.  I posted on Facebook earlier today about having had a somewhat challenging day at work, and how the dry cappuccino I'd picked up at our new local coffee shop had made me feel so much better.

My former college roomie (whose children's daily antics are a source of amusement to me) asked what a "dry cappuccino" was.  My knee-jerk reaction was to don the Black Apron again and use professional terms, which, while accurate, would have been irritatingly cocky.  Instead, I explained that there is more foam than liquid in a properly made dry cappuccino, and that a very well-made one is like a dessert, even without any additional sugar.

That's when it hit me - I love coffee for coffee's sake.  Not the caffeine, not the ritual, not the comfort - simply for the pleasure and the experience of drinking it.

And it's okay that I squirm a little when I have to fork over $4 for a latte.  After all, I don't do it that often.

I can just drink what's leftover in the pot from last week.

(I'm grateful that Carnegie's new coffee shop has opened.  You can read my review here.)