It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San’s blog here.
I started drinking coffee when I was eight. My mom brought home these beautiful bowls from a trip she’d made to Paris, and said that children drank café-au-lait out of the bowls. Obviously, I wanted to do this, too. So she made me café-au-lait, which is mainly milk with a splash of coffee.
My next memory of coffee comes from my mother’s law office. Her office had a little kitchenette in the basement, outside the library. It’s two best features were an “Honor Box” of candy bars (which I dutifully fed dollars and coins into so that I could have Butterfingers when they were available and Fifth Avenue bars when they weren’t) and a coffee pot. I’d pour myself cups of coffee, doctor them up with sweetener and powdered milk, and drink them while I did my homework.
Once when I was in high school, my father and I drove to a Big West Coast City. It’s possible we were on our way to check out a university there; I remember the visit and hating the bustling, city-like school with all my heart. We stopped at a resort on a lake, about halfway between my hometown and BWCC, and had a fancy dinner. After dessert, on a whim, we ordered the coffee tray. My father does NOT drink coffee, but he and I were both delighted by all the accoutrements – marshmallows, sugar cubes, whipped cream, chocolate shavings. We mixed our coffees into sweet oblivion.
That’s where my specific memories of coffee-drinking stall. I have flickers: gratefully seeking out the break room coffee machine when my eyes started to flutter during an especially tedious internship; sipping that first pumpkin spice latte of the fall; searching for just the right flavor of those tiny tubs of flavored creamer crammed into a bowl in a diner.
But coffee just doesn’t do it for me anymore. Hasn’t for a decade or more (despite my best efforts). Now, I’m into tea.
I drink both coffee and tea, but I have a weird relationship with coffee. I enjoy espresso drinks (mostly lattes) and I make instant coffee with a lot of milk (like half coffee, half milk). So pretty much either high or low end, but I almost never drink regular brewed coffee. And it has to be milky.
Even as a kid, I liked coffee ice cream, but I didn’t drink it regularly until I was in my 40s. I like it with flavored creamer, or at least cream and sugar. A few years back, I was out at a nice restaurant with my mother and aunt, and decided to get coffee after dinner. I carefully doctored the cup up, and then before I even took a sip, a fly came buzzing around my face and when I batted it away from me, it went directly into the coffee! I laughed so hard it hurt (and they brought me a fresh cup).
I only like herbal tea; black tea just does not do it for me, and do not get me started on green tea. However, I love an herbal tea. Well, and the occasional chai, which is technically black tea but, you know. It’s yummy.
I’m a black coffee drinker, but I did go through a phase where I liked lattes and whatnot from Starbucks. When I stopped dairy milk, I kind of stopped lattes because at the time, the only non-dairy milk at Starbucks was soy, which I don’t like. I’m the opposite of Steph above, I brew myself a pretty weak pot of coffee every day and then drink the whole thing.
Our coffee stories started the same but then diverged. My dad never drank coffee, but in middle school my mom started making me cafe au lait. Over time I shifted to more coffee and less lait. Once I started working in high school I went from drinking one cup to a lotta cups every day. If you’d asked me at the time I would have told you that it was totally fine and coffee didn’t affect my sleep one bit. With age comes wisdom and now I only drink one cup a day though the size of the cup may vary. The few times that I’ve tried to give it up have been a disaster so my rule is “only one and never none”.
I started drinking coffee in university and hated it; now I really do love the flavour (with creamer, no sugar – and NEVER black), but it gives me headaches and upsets my stomach. My compromise is 2 cups of coffee a week on weekend mornings. It seems to work out okay, though I’d likely be better off never having it. Sigh.
I do enjoy tea – orange pekoe, chai, and Earl Grey, but I dislike herbal tea so much. I really wish I liked it, but I just don’t – despite years of trying.
Coffee is delicious. I would absolutely be an addict, so we don’t have any coffeemaking equipment in our house. I only buy it once or twice a month as a treat to myself when I do something I don’t really want to do, like leave the house. So we drink tea and it’s fine. But it’s not the same.
I learned to drink coffee from my husband, when we started dating (in college). So I drink my coffee black. I remember liking flavored coffee every once in a while when I was younger but I don’t anymore. We used to buy whole beans from those coffee places in malls (Gloria Jean’s, for example) and loved to experiment. I miss being able to do that. I need my coffee in the mornings — we still buy a lot of whole beans but we get the prepackaged ones from Peet’s or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I’ve been eyeing some expensive beans and thought I might treat myself when the market recovers — so maybe in 10years? LOL Anyway,
although my husband makes my coffee 95% of the time, sometimes, I buy the ground because some mornings, he sleeps in and I want to get up and make coffee and I’d rather not grind the beans first.
I used to cart off my mom’s milky/sugary coffee after church, until she discovered what I was doing, “Bring that back!” I’ve always liked the taste (and smell!) but now drink a froufrou mocha although I also enjoy drip coffee with fancy creamer. I only liked tea when I was pregnant. Strangely, I enjoy it iced, especially in an Arnold Palmer. But not hot. I’m the opposite with coffee.
Weirdly, I never drank coffee. I mean I just never started so never developed a taste for it. It wasn’t till I met my husband (in my 30s) that I started drinking tea. Now I drink earl grey every morning, and if I don’t, I get a caffeine headache. Just recently I thought I finally discovered a coffee drink I liked – the iced oatmilk latte from Starbucks. But I drink about half of it and then start to feel nauseous- so I guess I’m officially not a coffee person.
I love both coffee and tea, but up until age 25 I was strictly a tea drinker. I thought coffee smelled nice, but tasted awful. I think my parents’ coffee was just too strong for me. I am very picky about my coffee and won’t drink it just because it’s coffee.
It must be a good brew and I usually drink it with 1/3 of (soy) milk, no sugar. It’s more for comfort than for anything and my favorite part of the day.
I was so adamant that I would never drink coffee when I was a kid/teen. Then after college I remember trying a mocha from caribou in a road to a friend’s wedding in ND. And that was my gateway to coffee. But I have never been able to drink it black so I don’t feel like a ‘real’ coffee drinker. I have to have creamer and ideally sugar free vanilla creamer from Aldi. It is the best of all sugar free creamers! At Starbucks I order a skinny vanilla latte and occasionally treat myself to a mocha but that is pretty rare since I know how caloric they are.
My love affair with black coffee began on a road trip with my mom. We were driving straight through from Texas to Kentucky (most likely). She drank it black so there was no creamer/sugar/milk, etc. in the car. I forced it down to stay awake. Eventually, it became an acquired taste. I used to drink just about a pot of coffee a day. During lockdown I scaled it way, way back. Depending on the day, I usually have two cups (technically, probably only one since I toss it when it gets cold about half way through) and if it’s a day where I’m heading to the office, usually only one (technically, probably only half – see above). I do enjoy a “fancy” coffee every once in a while as a treat; but the fact that black coffee has no calories makes it the winner.
You are nailing the NaBloPoMo – about halfway through!
I am not even sure when I had coffee for the first time, but it surely wasn’t as young as 8! Haha. My parents didn’t drink coffee, so it was something I think I was introduced to in college maybe? But I solely drank Starbucks Frappuccinos for a loooong time, which is basically just a coffee milkshake. I’m still someone who needs my coffee to be very sweet. Plain coffee is sooo bitter and yuck to me!
What sweet (caffeinated) memories.
My (grumpy) Grandpa taught me how to dip my butter drenched toast into coffee when I was around six years old. This explains a lot about me…😜
Ahhh, coffee. I also tried cafe au lait when in France – it’s sooo good there! (Particularly if made with a French press… mmm…) I started drinking it as an adult. Before coffee, I drank this chocolate chai from Trader Joe’s (no longer offered, but other companies make similar mixes…). I switched to coffee when I had a partner and I realized that one did not have to drink it black (my mother’s preference). I still drink it, but one cup/day, I still add a bit of milk and sweetener. And, I also drink fake-sweetened chai from a concentrate, but not every day. My downfall is… Diet Coke. So, coffee + diet coke = how I get through my days.
I love coffee and tea. But if I had to choose one I guess it would be tea.I can not remember the first time I had coffee. But I do remember that in 6 grade (how old are you then?!) I spend a lot of my pocket money on instant cappuccino that I sipped with a friend. We felt so very grown up.