I think, as a child, my mother filled my baby bottle with formula mixed with coffee. The smell, the aroma, the taste…how did I begin such a love affair with coffee? Maybe it was the aroma of coffee beans in the air in my hometown, New Orleans or the tap water from the Mississippi. Or maybe due to my family originating from Vienna, Austria where coffee is an art form and integral to society in that neck of the world. As a child I was given a tiny sugar cube to suck on as my coffee always arrived in a demitasse cup.

 

I am not, in any way, eliminating tea lovers. Pride, love and care of tea is an additional beverage that gives the other side the same immense satisfaction, so bless their hearts. Those of us who love, breathe and live for coffee, are that cult who thinks of coffee as a ritual and a sense of connection with the world. It is the beverage that gives us pause to move on with our day. Sure, it provides energy and stimulation but that is only a tiny piece of the experience. Coffee provides an intermission in our lives. I happen to have a friend who is very ill and when I arrive at her house, she always says “Come on in, coffee solves all problems.” Her health is better and so it goes.

 

There are some of us who cannot have a conversation in the morning without a cup of Joe. I do that frantic morning dance in motels where broken coffee apparatus can cause me absolute terror. Like an addict, I drive madly in my PJ’s to the nearest Mickey D’s. Ahhhh, what joy $.64 can bring. It is so soothing people like me feel we could rule the world. That dopamine is doing rock and roll inside our brains and euphoria awaits. Aside from the fact coffee can bring us happiness, that brown magic liquid is a lifesaver during times of sadness and stress. Should you find yourself sitting in ICU waiting on news of a loved one, there is always a pot of that warm liquid awaiting us. Coffee is comfort for the mind and soul. Something about it is a warm embrace or the best hug in the world.

 

An authentic coffee person is usually a morning person. Without it, my tribe is like a completed jigsaw puzzle that has smashed to the ground. We are discombobulated, unable to function and the world has to wait. It is what it is. We are very precise in making our coffee, after all, it is a ritual. Some of us create the grinds the night before and measure, after all, we have a huge stash of high-quality coffee in our pantry. Like the mail carrier, the show must go  on and we are NEVER out of coffee in our house. We have a favorite roast while we perfect the brewing. We know what we like, we stick to it like Gorilla Glue, so if you happen to pop into our home, you get what you get and you might just fall in love.

 

Should you be a member of The Coffee Tribe, it goes without saying you have a huge collection of coffee mugs. Why, you ask? Each cup of Joe matches a coffee moment that matches a place. If mid-morning you sit on your porch for a cup, you own a “porch mug.” After lunch, you will have your daily “digestion lunch mug” and in the afternoon you will probably select that big mug from “WaWa’s” to fill you up until after dinner. Your times are precise in your schedule for a coffee break and there are no weather alerts serious enough to keep you away from your favorite coffee haunts.

 

To be blunt, you never say no to coffee. It doesn’t keep you awake at night, it doesn’t cause you indigestion and what it does is help you become nicer because the world is a happier place. So, in retrospect, we wake up, we sleep well and own the best collection of coffee mugs on the planet.