Coffee Is as Coffee Does

I started drinking coffee when I was in middle school, and I have always taken my coffee black. I think this is a direct result of learning how to drink coffee from my father. We had just moved and my middle school was half an hour from our house, but right next door to my dad’s office. It made sense to ride into work with him in the mornings and walk across the street to the school. Only problem was...my dad is a notoriously early riser. He doesn’t like to be early for things, he likes to be there first. So we would leave the house everyday around 6:45 and start our days.

I loved these early mornings with my Dad. We would listen to talk radio and sip hot coffee from large to-go mugs. Sometimes we would stop in for an order of breakfast potatoes from the local coffee shop above my dad’s office. I’m sure this can’t be true, but in my memory, these are the best breakfast potatoes I have ever eaten- salty and seasoned and crispy, with little chunks of onion scattered through them.

Coffee became a way of life for me at a young age, and that has never changed. When I got older, my mom and I would bond over our love of the pumpkin spice latte. I even remember the first time we tried Starbucks...can you imagine? It’s such a ubiquitous place now, but believe it or not, there wasn’t always one on every street corner.

In fact later, when I lived in Spain, I would become ferociously homesick. I loved it there and I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world, but you still miss the people you love. Whenever I was feeling particularly glum, I would walk to the Starbucks downtown to feel closer to my mom. Ironically, I found out years later that she absolutely could not set foot in a Starbucks while I was gone because she missed me so much.

In high school when I was old enough to drive but young enough to not have more than $20 at a time, coffee shops became a sanctuary for all that teenaged angst. Much to the delight of the baristas, I would order a coffee and post-up at a table for hours on end, reading and thinking and generally being teenage-ry. There is a feeling of “adult-ness” when you order your coffee black and sit down with a good book (I still sort of feel this way, and I am now 30 with a career and a husband).

It should come as no surprise that I fell in love with and married a barista- but I swear the free coffees weren’t the only reason he got me ;)

Coffee means togetherness and warmth to me. It means gathering around the table with the ones you love and talking about what’s to come during the day. It means that afternoon pick me up where we all decompress and relax. Coffee houses are the places we gather to tell our stories and reconnect.

Coffee has always been so much more than a hot drink to me.