Coffee

I have loved coffee as long as I can remember. When I was little, my mom used to let me have some, as long as it was mostly milk.

There were very strict rules in our house. We had perked coffee on Sundays, but the rest of the time, it was instant. And this was before "flavour crystals," or whatever. This was powdered coffee.

We never used sugar in it. My parents had both given up sugar in tea and coffee during the war, when sugar was a valuable commodity to be hoarded for Christmas, or traded for eggs. And there were always much better uses for cream. For that matter, milk was a bit of a luxury, too, and powdered milk reigned at our house for many years.

So, coffee consisted of instant coffee, boiling water and powdered milk. Is it any wonder I was less than thrilled with powdered coffee "creamers," when they hit the market?

Sundays, now...Sundays, that delicious aroma of perking coffee would waft throughout the house. Perked coffee was our reward for getting up for church. Nothing spiritual about it.

I discovered espresso in college. Didn't we all? Not to mention Greek coffee, Turkish coffee, and Cuban coffee. Drink any of those in a demi-tasse, and leave the bottom quarter inch in the cup.

Then came flavoured instant coffees. "Irish Creme," etc. Then flavoured creamers. Then what my husband used to call "frou-frou" coffee. Hazlenut, and other travesties.

I was in a coffee shop the other day, and couldn't believe how complicated coffee has become. Cappuccino, I understand. Latté, I understand. Beyond that, it's a mystery! Remember Dunkin' Donuts?

I lived through percolators, dripolators, Melittas, some weird system than converts a pound of coffee at a time into a liquid instant, and have emerged scatheless.

I am now drinking custom-roasted (a gift), fresh ground, French-pressed coffee with half-and-half.

It doesn't get any better than that.