I have recently embarked on a journey to discover the joys of the many different incarnations of coffee and have decided to record my discoveries for everyone's enjoyment. My history with what I had previously known as "coffee" is the same as most who grew up on the West Coast in the 70's and 80's. Coffee was something in large containers from the grocery store that all the grown ups had in the morning to wake up. It was all about the Mr. Coffee and the Foldgers freeze dried or the Sanka instant coffee. No one under 40 ever had a cup of coffee or even considered drinking such a thing. Of course being a kid I asked my Mom once if I could try some and she obliged me. I have learned over the years that asking to try something my Mom likes is like asking someone to pore molten fire in my mouth. She grew up on spicy New Mexican cuisine and as a result her taste buds regiester flavors and heat differently then me, my Dad, and my sisters. She liked her coffee strong, hot and black and was only to happy to let me try a taste. I remember it being too hot for my young tongue and the taste way to foreign to my inexperienced palate to comprehend and my Mom laughing at the face I made. To sum up; I didn't like it and decided from there on coffee was not for me.
My next experience with coffee drinkers came from my 3 years in the Army. Coffee in the Army was only for the career solider; hence the term "lifer juice". I was never tempted to even try the stuff while enlisted but can't imagine it could have been any better then my pervious experience. If I was to believe all the complaints from the "lifers" in the service it had to be one of the worst ways for water to be used to make a drink and should be banned and most likely would have been if not for their maniacal dependence on the stuff.
At about the same time I made it back to civilization and started college, Starbucks was expanding into the Las Vegas market. At the time I couldn't understand paying $4 for a cup of coffee. Sure I've heard the terms Cafe Latte and Cappuccino by this time but to me it was all just coffee. It was at this time I was introduced to the Frappaccino and decided that paying $4 for one of those is totally acceptable because it's not coffee. I guess you can say this frozen concoction was my gateway drug into developing a taste for coffee. However it was not a fast transition to other coffee drinks. It was still a few years before even trying a Cafe Latte and only after the prodding of a friend while in Australia. But the espresso or the black coffee were still not anywhere on the horizon in terms of drinkability until recently. You see I've been unemployed for well over a year now and to keep myself sane I was spending time out of the house at Starbuck's or Panarea Bread having their version of a Latte and looking online for a job. After a few weeks of this brother JJ suggested I try Sunrise Coffee and my life was changed forever (a little dramatic I know). The owners and barista's at Sunrise Coffee are to blame for my new appreciation of the black juice. They blend a Cafe Latte or a Cappuccino with such perfection that you could swear you were in one of the great coffee shops in Seattle and what started as just a minor appreciation of their craft has started me on this journey of discovery.
Also I feel now as a middle aged man who has had his up's and down's, who has loved and lost, who has been around the world, and most importantly who is now well into his 40's; I can finally truly appreciate all that coffee has to offer. Of course that's all bullshit, it's just good to have a hobby.
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