2 Questions

There are two questions that I get asked repeatedly and regularly. They both make sense for people who know me and my habits, but I don't think I ever answer them properly. So I'll answer them here, where I don't have to think on my feet. 

1. Are you going to get a Kindle or Nook?

I don't know how many times I've been asked some variation on this question. I get asked about my feelings on e-readers often enough that I've developed something of a pat answer. I don't hate the idea of e-readers. In fact, anything that gets people reading is a wonderful thing. I hope people read regularly and broadly. I hope they fill their e-reader with books and catch up on modern novels, classics, and nonfiction. Seriously, I don't care what form you read as long as you read. As for myself, I would probably love a Kindle or Nook. I like the idea of having hundreds of books handy. But it's not something that I'm going to go out of my way to buy. If I end up with one, great. But even if I do, that doesn't mean that I'll stop buying print books. I prefer to read off paper. I find my concentration isn't quite as deep when I read on a screen. And even if I find that I love the Kindle/Nook and I love reading on it, I'll still buy paper books as well, and not just for that wonderful old book smell. There is something about being surrounded by paper and books that makes me feel at home. I'm never more happy then when I'm in a library or bookstore, surrounded by stories. Browsing those shelves I find books I would never have expected to read, that become favorites. I find new ideas. I can't get that browsing experience electronically. Because I prefer to read serendipitously, I'll never stop book buying. Even if I do purchase a few electronically. 

2. Are you ever going to get a Keurig?

I drink a lot of coffee and tea. I'm the queen of hot beverages. So it's natural to assume that I would want a Keurig. I have friends that love theirs. I've used them in hotels and been happy with them. But I'm never ever going to get one. I have two reasons. The first is purely personal. As I mentioned before, I drink a lot of coffee. I drink a pot of coffee every day at work. Decaf of course, but it's a full pot. I pour cup after cup. I can't imagine if I had to get up to make a new cup of coffee each time I ran out. Currently I just pour some fresh stuff from my 12 cup maker on top of the cooling coffee. I can't imagine drinking less and I can't imagine having to make it in individual sized cups. 

The second reason that I won't get a Keurig is only partly personal. I started to notice that K-cups now make up more and more of my grocery aisle at stores. Box after box of K-cups are available in every possible brand. And each of those little cups is made of plastic. That means that every time I make a cup of coffee I'm contributing a tiny cup of plastic to our landfills. While that may not seem huge, now imagine that everyone in your town does that each day. If every person in Des Moines drank one cup of coffee each day (and used a K-cup) that means that over the course of a year, Des Moines alone (with a population of almost 600,000) would add 219 million little plastic cups to the landfill. 219 MILLION!!. In our relatively small city. Now imagine the number of K-cups coming out of a city like New York City. So far I haven't heard anyone talk about the environmental impact of the Keurig but I bet we will start talking about that soon. I can't think of a more wasteful device out there. They look lovely and make decent coffee, but they also make a ton of trash. 

Have Thermos, Will Travel

In an effort to save money (and the environment) I've stopped picking up coffee each morning. For the last three years I have been a dedicated Caribou girl. Each morning I would stop and pick up a large dark roast to take to work. On Fridays it would be accompanied by a piece of Cinnamon Coffee Cake or a French Toast Muffin. My treat for making it through the week.

But you don't have to be a math major to figure out how fast that adds up. A large coffee with tax is $2.11. A large coffee with pastry is $4 something. Over the course of a week that works out to $13, and that's only if I don't tip. So this week I stopped going. I drove past Caribou and went straight to work. But don't even get the idea that I've stopped drinking coffee. In fact, I'm drinking far more than ever.

A couple years ago I bought a Thermos brand thermos, which came in incredibly handy when I broke my ankle. And while I would make coffee at home occasionally, I never really used the thermos. Now I keep wondering why. My thermos can hold most of a pot of coffee and the amount left over is perfect for a travel mug (it's like they planned it that way :-) ). The thermos can keep the coffee hot for at least eight hours which means that I can have wonderfully hot coffee in the afternoon, if it lasts that long. So I've started making coffee at home and taking it to work.

Now instead of a 20 oz coffee to start my day, I drink an entire pot...of decaf. I know that I shouldn't drink an entire pot of regular every morning (not that I can't) so I brew decaf. I've set up my coffee pot to delay brew and have fresh piping hot decaf ready for me each morning. So far I haven't noticed the lack of caffeine. The only thing I worried is that I would miss the coffee lid. I used to hate drinking coffee through those tiny slit lid. Now I find that I'm addicted. I love how slow it allows me to drink, savoring my coffee for hours while still keeping it hot. Luckily the folks at DC Craft have my back. This is the "I Am Not a Paper Cup" cup. Refillable, washable, it comes with a silicone lid and silicone wrap for my hand. It holds almost 20 ounces and makes me incredibly happy. So in one week I've gone from Caribou addict to happily self-sufficient. If only my meals were that easy.

Saving the Earth, One Cool Cup at a Time

I love to buy coffee. I enjoy drinking coffee quite a bit but I really love buying coffee. I love the coffeehouse setting. I love the rich dark roasts. And although I'm ashamed to admit it, I love the paper cup with the plastic lid and the cardboard wrap. I can own as many coffee cups as I like but when I get home on Saturday with a full cup of coffee in a paper cup, I'll refill that cup many times throughout the day with my home brewed coffee. I just love the lids and the shape. There is simply nothing like it in the durable cup market.

Or at least, that is what I thought. That is until I saw DCI's "I Am Not a Paper Cup" mug. DCI stands for Decor Craft Inc. I want this mug. It may look plain and white and boring but it has everything I love about buying my coffee at the coffee house. Except this one can be washed and reused. The cup itself is made out of porcelain. The lid, which is called "I Am Not a Plastic Lid", is made out of silicon. The whole cup is dishwasher safe, durable, and really cool looking. I own my share of coffee cups and travel mugs. but with prices anywhere from $10-$20, I'll consider it an investment for the environment. Saving paper goods never looked so good.

Thinking about Drinking

Today I'm thinking about coffee. Not surprising, of course, since most days I think about coffee. I have a serious coffee addiction. But the issue for today is less on the actual drink and more on the atmosphere that it is imbibed in. I am a coffeehouse person. I love the feeling and setting of a good coffeehouse. I feel at home there. I can trace each stage of my life to the different coffeehouses I have been in. I fell in love with a city ones based entirely on its coffeehouses. My older sister is a bar person. And this distinction interests me.

A couple years ago I read Tom Standage's excellent book "The History of the World in Six Glasses". This fascinating book told the entire history of the world through beverages. It includes most of history of the human race starting with the brewing of beer by the Mesopotamians, wine in Greek and Roman time, spirits that brought about a new world, the proliferation of coffeehouses, the tea trade, all the way down to the creation of soda. But it was the section on coffee that fascinated me the most. Standage says that the history of coffee can be linked to some of the greatest innovations and scientific advances of our lives. The rise of the coffeehouse was linked with the exchange of ideas, philosophies, and advances.

One of the things that Standage says is that the coffeehouses were so popular because of their differentiation from the bars. And I have to say that bar people and coffeehouse people are very different types of people. I can see that in my own life. It's New Years Eve and there is no way you'll catch me out at the bars. It is just not my place. I go to bars occasionally but I am never at home there. I just never really feel comfortable. The bars are too social, too loud, and too unpredictable for me. They are places for extroverts and pleasure seekers. They are retreats of night owls where no work will ever get done. Coffeehouses on the other hand are all about industry. Alcohol is a depressant. Coffee is a stimulant. Coffeehouses are all about work and ideas and caffeine-induced writing. :-) They are about productivity and introversion.

I am a morning person, an introvert, and in some instances, a workaholic. People will tell you that I am boring, and it is probably true in their eyes. I am happier reading a book or writing a story, then drinking and playing pool. My older sister had a big influence on me when I was growing up. For a long time I wanted to be her. She was all about going out to the bars and meeting tons of people. She always seems to have way more friends than I do and have more fun than I do. I always thought that was what I wanted. That I was supposed to be like that. It is only in the last couple years that I have realized that I don't want to be her. Not that she doesn't have a great life...but that I'm not like her. She is a bar person...I am a coffeehouse person.

So tonight I am going out to dinner with my husband and a friend. Then we will go back to my house to open a bottle of wine and knit. I'll make some coffee and we'll sit and chat. And that sounds like a great New Years Eve for me. I won't be out at the bars. Call it boring but for the first time in my life, I know where I want to be.

Queen of Caffeine no more

If you asked me what my favorite beverage is, it would be coffee. Of all the vices to have coffee is my biggest one. I can drink it all day. I tend to be the happiest when I have a fresh hot cup of coffee in hand. Jeff hates even the smell of it but it is one of those things I just can't give up. Leaded, decaf, doesn't matter as long as you don't add anything too it. I'm not a cream and sugar girl.

I recently switched to decaf because I can then drink more of it. I have decaf at both home and work and drink a pot of the stuff every day. I was starting to notice that after a pot of regular coffee my stomach felt bad and I was jittery. Decaf tastes just the same without the adverse side effects.

This morning though I stopped at Caribou on my way in for a large dark roast and a chocolate covered graham cracker. Heaven!! Apparently going decaf means that it is impossible for me to go back to leaded. I'm not even finished with my 20 oz and already I'm shaky. My stomach has the sour feeling that it used to get after a full 70 oz. I am apparently losing my ability to handle caffeine. So here I sit at work, with my hands shaking, my mind racing, my body trying to jump out of its skin, and a slightly sick feeling. I'm going to swear off the stuff. It is the only way to stop this terrible feeling. No more. Caffeine I mean. I could never give up coffee!