Coffee

As a kid, one of things I always associated with being a grown-up was drinking coffee. My parents both drank coffee, so it made sense that when I grew up I’d drink coffee, too. except I never really liked it. when I was 21-22, I worked as a nanny, and the parents were heavy coffee drinkers – more than a pot a day, whereas my parents never finished a pot. I remember one of the parents telling me once, jokingly, that they didn’t trust people who weren’t coffee drinkers. Part of me was hurt by this statement (they’re paying me to care for their children – how can they NOT trust me?) and part of me didn’t understand why it was a big deal. I was (and still am) a Diet Coke girl. Why did my caffeine delivery device matter to them?

A year or two later, I finally gave coffee-drinking a go for real. I’d tried in the past, by adding increasingly larger amounts of coffee to my cocoa, but at the end of the day, I just wanted my Diet Coke. Artificial sweetener (which is sweeter than sugar) and lots of creamer (or nonfat dry milk powder at home) helped make it palatable, but I still didn’t feel like a “real” coffee drinker, so therefore I didn’t feel like a “real” adult. Yeah, I had issues.

About the time I turned 25, I got my first real full-time office job. The guy I worked for was too cheap to spring for a fridge or a microwave, but he bought a coffee pot, creamer and sweeteners, and my coffee-drinking habits were formed.

Fast forward 16 years. Starbucks has infiltrated the Midwest, along with Tim Horton, Panera, and Caribou Coffee. You can even get a pretty decent cuppa from your local gas station.

I’ll let you in on a secret: I hate Starbucks. It’s freaking expensive, and the menu intimidates me. I just want a freaking cup of coffee, and let me doctor it up myself. I’m not going to pay you $6 so you can intimidate me when I don’t know the lingo, and then load it full of crap I don’t need.


That said, I do love the coffee/chocolate combo (like making my hot cocoa with coffee instead of water), and a frozen milkshake-y mocha is a nice treat. It doesn’t even have to be frozen or milkshake-y, just cold and chocolate-y. Silk used to make a mocha soymilk, but I could almost never find it, and it’s expensive. One day it occurred to me that all I needed to do was add coffee to chocolate soymilk and boom! Instant mocha! So, armed with a half gallon of chocolate silk and a jar of instant coffee, my home-mocha-making was born.


Iced Soy Mocha:
Stir a heaping spoonful of instant coffee into about 2 tbsp water in your glass to dissolve. Add a cup or so of chocolate soymilk. Stir and serve over ice (if desired)

Yummy Iced Soy Mocha Treat:
Take the above and run it through the blender to make it milk shake-y. serve with an umbrella straw.

Cheater cappuccino:
Make a packet of instant hot cocoa using coffee rather than water. Add a creamer or two for extra richness.


Eventually I got tired of it, or would forget to get the chocolate soymilk, and it’s easier to just buy a case of Diet Coke (or the cheaper store-brand equivalent) and go on about my day. Then my friend Grace got a Keurig. And she raved about it. she made all sorts of concoctions for her morning caffeine hit, and would tempt me with it any time I was over. It didn’t take long for me to covet thy friend’s kitchen gadgets, but at $200 there was no way I’d be getting one. I casually mentioned to Grace that I’d like to get one, I didn’t think she’d find me one. Her mom had a spare, one of the smaller models, and was selling it for less than half the retail price. She still had the box and it had hardly been used, so of course I jumped on it.

Iced Mocha a la Keurig:
Brew a lg cup of strong coffee using the Keurig. Take a hot cocoa K-cup, open it (ignoring the warning on the foil lid), and stir into your cup of coffee. Pour over a large tumbler full of ice. Stir well and enjoy.

Even in the depths of winter, this is usually my morning caffeine hit. Once at work, I drink decaf, hot.

I suppose I can call myself a “real” adult because I am finally a “real” coffee drinker.