J is for Java

It took me a long time to like coffee.

As a kid, I thought I was all grown up, drinking a cup of coffee in the winter time.  You probably couldn't really call it coffee, though, since it was about 1/4 cup of coffee to 3/4 cup of milk and who knows how many spoons of sugar.  Basically, it was milk coffee and for a kid it was a sweet treat.

When I went off to college, my mama who was about a ten cups a day coffee drinker kept telling me that I would probably learn to drink stronger coffee in college.  She figured late night studying would turn me on to the java, but I probably drank less milk coffee as a teenager in college than I had as a youngster. I graduated and still didn't really like coffee.

When I started teaching, my mama who was still about a ten cups a day coffee drinker told me that I would probably learn to like stronger coffee as a teacher.  It's almost a prerequisite that teachers drink the bean, but even late nights of grading papers did not see me drinking any more coffee.  I still didn't really like coffee.

In my late twenties and early thirties, the coffee house phenomenon seemed to explode.  There were already Starbucks and Caribou Coffee, but you started seeing more small coffee shops popping up all over and my coffee drinking friends started asking to meet up at the local coffee shop.  We'd play games, talk about books, and catch up on life, and so I tried a latte or two and then a cappuccino or three and before I knew it I was drinking coffee.  Granted, it wasn't too far off from the milk coffee that I enjoyed as a child, but it certainly was more adult of me to be drinking these fancy named coffee drinks.

Now in my forties with a busy life that includes an active child, I have finally discovered coffee, real coffee, strong coffee, the kind that you must have in the morning to get you going.  I don't drink it every day, but I definitely have a few cups on the weekends, and my proportions have changed: 3/4 cup coffee to 1/4 cup of creamer.

How do you like your java?