Coffee's On

One of my newest obsessions is coffee drinks. Now to some that may not seem like such a strange thing, considering I am nano seconds away from turning the big 4 0 ..... But I honestly never pictured myself ever drinking coffee. I'd tried it one other time in 1985, and pretty much swore I'd never (see you should really not commit yourself to never - it's way too long) drink the stuff. To me at age 18 it tasted like burnt water. I only tried it because at that time I was commuting to Reno from Janesville (72 miles) and work started at 7AM - you do the math. I worked on a construction site with my dad, by the way he did the driving. So we'd get there about 7 AM and into this dusty little trailer I'd go. So long story short I was really cold as the trailer had no heat and my dad said "Well you should drink some coffee it will warm you up" So off to the corner store I went. I remember thinking how grown up that seemed. Drinking coffee. Wow. I made the journey back with this precious thing that would not only wake me up but warm me up as well. I took one sip and that was it for me! Yucky. It took a long time to get the taste out of my mouth. And I hadn't had the desire to try it since. Even when my kids were younger and I needed a jolt to stay awake from sleepless nights I avoided it. That's probably when I decided caffeinated drinks were the thing - but never in the morning..... I would also say I wouldn't even try Mocha flavored ice cream.

Mocha....Now that is the beginning of my demise to coffee. My girlfriend introduced me to blended mocha's (my favorite, the "Cable Car Chiller", from CR Beans). I would drive across town to have one for lunch. Then winter came and I couldn't do the blended thing and the hot chocolate drinks just weren't doing it for me anymore. So I tried the "Cable Car Mocha". More pleasure! Now I'm really becoming a Mocha snob. And living in Chico where there is a coffee house on nearly every corner it's hard. My first choice is always going to be CR Beans, it's only a drive thru, which I really enjoy. I'm not a big fan of Starbucks (it's that corporate thing), however I can go to either Safeway's and get a drink and after my 7th one it's free! I like Higher Ground but I think really just for the Cranberry Orange Scone - there coffee is really bad... And I'll go to Dutch Bros. if I'm on that side of town. How lazy am I - these all have drive thrus! In my effort to be frugal I'm now making (trying) coffee at home. We've had our current coffee maker for about four years and until the first of the year we'd probably only used it 6 times, maybe! When Kevin makes coffee he uses the French Press - that's too much coffee for me. However, I just can't seem to get the mocha taste. And I still think I dislike the taste of coffee. I use lots of additives! I guess you could say I really drink creamer and have coffee with it! I'm still working on perfecting the Perfect drink. I need to find the best coffee - too many choices! I can't wait for summer and I can go back to my blended mocha. But then I'll want to figure out how to make it at home, I feel like the pig and the pancake with the maple syrup. Or if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to need milk to go with it and.....