Warning: Habit Forming

I have always had a thing for coffee, but in recent months, or really over that last year, my love for coffee has turned from an obsession to a fascination. I use to just have coffee with my breakfast, or as my breakfast. Slowly it began accompanying snacks. Then after dinner. Now, I have a coffee shop, with a regular order AND time. (This week I've been off on stopping in, due to lack of car - but that's a different story.) It's gotten bad. And I want to blame it on Australia.

Yes. The entire country. Not because they don't drink it, but they ONLY drink espresso.

Wait, rewind. When was I in Australia? August-November 2008. "Your first semester, you spent it abroad?" Yes. I did. Deal with it. Be jealous. Well, yes, do. Long story short, it was/is a new freshman abroad type thing at NU.

So, anyway. For 4 months, I was drinking 1 to 2 espresso based drinks daily. No fresh ground, fresh brewed "American" coffee at the endless cafés just blocks from my apartment. (Some restaurants offered it after dinner, but then it was this weird dissolvable "add hot water" type thing, which is what they also mainly sold in stores.) The Starbucks did have the "fresh" brewed option, but it was gross, burned, brewed wayyy too strong. I just couldn't do it. I came home deprived of coffee. While I had an amazing time down unda', I was, generally, very happy, bubbly, enjoying life in December. And I want to say it was because of the coffee, but I'm sure there were many other reasons. Like actually getting a full night sleep. Or this whole, no work thing. (Not that I'm not happy now, just then I was so relaxed. I literally just sat around all of December.)

Before leaving the country, I'd been to a "cupping" at my now coffeehouse's, original location. A cupping is like wine tasting, but for coffee. It's all fresh ground, steeped in front of you, grinds in your cup, no milk or sugar, straight up coffee. You literally, learn to taste coffee. Then, everything you once knew changes for ever, but for the best. You learn to pick out flavor notes and how dark you actually like the original blend to be. I'm a 3, which is dead center, middle of the roast pile. Not to dark, but not to light. As much as one thinks that they can drown down a dark brew, no amount of milk and sugar can take a 5 on the Kaldi's scale, to there 3. It just isn't possible. Good coffee is hard to find, but once you do, stick with it. You don't want to see it drop off the map. (I still haven't found my local Boston type place. So far, I'm convinced I have to come home for amazing coffee.)

While this whole sharing a car thing has kept me out of my coffee shop, there's another reason I'm not stopping in on my way to the preschool. While I was out west for a few days with friends, I called home to check-in. Mid-conversation with my mom she pauses and says "OH! I have bad news," no idea where she was going. Then she dropped a bomb: "The coffee maker died. We've been using the decaf one. It makes horrible coffee." I then drilled her, asking how it could have died. She said it just wouldn't brew. Then I ask if it was plugged in, and I got reminded I don't live with idiots and that my father is a rocket scientist (but he doesn't drink coffee so why would he try to fix the coffee maker?). It really had died. But. It wasn't that sad. I knew which one would be our next. And well shelled out for it. Cuisinart had a new one out that grinded the beans before brewing, all in one body. I knew it would be mine.

We've now had it two or three weeks, but until Sunday we hadn't tried the grin and brew feature (because we had ground coffee to use up first). Oh boy. Freshly ground beans make a world of a difference. I don't like Starbucks bagged coffee, but it's what we had, and it makes even that taste amazing. Grinding fresh makes all the difference.