"Nose To The 'Grind' Stone

                                                           

I've added something to my bucket list.  I want to drive up to Seattle, walk down to the harbor front and go into one of those little coffee roasters there in port, grab a medium sized "bold, house blend", then walk down to the waterfront and drink that wonderful cup of joe as I look out on the harbor...the scent of the ocean and the aromatic coffee delighting my nose.

Please don't confuse me with those Starbucks weenies that spend $4,000 a year on their morning $7 dollar Starbucks' latte.  I've been in Starbucks twice in my life.  That does not mean that coffee is not one of the greatest pleasures of my life....it simply means, as a rule, I won't pay $5 or $6 or $7 bucks for a cup of coffee.

I started drinking coffee when I was twelve years old.  Loved it from the first sip.  Didn't start out to drink it to copy the grownups...it was just a pleasure I acquired early.   

In those first teen years of coffee drinking just about any brew would do.  My mom would buy the cheapest she could find so sometimes it was Folgers, sometimes it was Chock Full O Nuts and sometimes it was just a three pound of generic grind.  The only coffee I couldn't drink back then was my Uncle Bill and Aunt Fannie's brew.  They would generally just dump 12 ounces of coffee in one of those huge coffee urns and, no matter how long it sat, they'd drink that bitter and black brew throughout the day.

For three years in Vietnam I drank some of the foulest brew known to man.  If I were lucky enough to get it in the chow hall it was just mildly bad.  The cooks just threw huge cans of ground government brand coffee in a huge steel vat, filled it with hot water and brought it to a boil, then siphoned the liquid off into huge coffee urns and towed them to the serving line.  When I was posted at night out in a bunker or up in a guard tower I took out the little instant coffee pack from my C-rations, mixed it with canteen water and heated it up on a can of sterno.  Still, it was better than no coffee at all!

When I returned to the "land of the Big BX" (America) I was once again in coffee heaven.  I used to love to walk into a Denny's in the morning, buy a paper, take a seat at the counter and drink cup after cup of Denny's coffee.  If I were seated in a booth and ordered breakfast, the waitress would bring me a whole carafe of coffee...that was like foreplay to me...she couldn't have been more sexy to me!

I have sat up all night talking with family and friends, about life, about death, about dreams, and drank pot after pot of coffee...and those nights were memorable; good talk and good coffee.

When I lived in Saudi Arabia, and was invited to a native's home, we'd have a meal, then the hostess would bring out a big brass pot of arabic coffee. They served it in little thimble cups and when you'd had your fill of coffee you turned that little cup upside down or else your host would just keep re-filling your cup.  And, while in Saudi Arabia, I began developing a taste for bolder European brews...so much so that, when I returned to America, Folgers just didn't cut it for me anymore.  I found that Costco's house blends to be a good compromise between the now watery tasting Folgers and the stronger brews I had become accustomed to drinking overseas.  

Then one day a few years ago, my daughter ruined me for off the shelf coffees for all time.  She bought me a monthly subscription to Peet's Coffee; Goruda Blend and I was hooked!  Everything after that may as well have been that C-ration instant I was forced to drink in Vietnam.  The Peet's Goruda Blend is made from coffee beans grown in some exotic island in Asia and is both bold and smooth and ultimately satisfying.  I still have to drink the Costco Decaf in the evening but, even then, I top it off with a scoop of the Goruda Blend to civilize it a bit.

Oh, I've slummed a bit when forced to; at a McDonald's or in a restaurant somewhere when I'm far away from my Bunn coffee maker and my precious Goruda, but not often.  I'm known to lug a commuter mug around all day just so I can enjoy my brew.

So, yeah, I've put Seattle on my bucket list.  Those folks up there go orgasmic over their coffees and I want to walk down the waterfront streets of Seattle and breathe in all that coffee roasting going on.  My cup of joe runneth over.