Coffee; A Love Story

My love affair with coffee goes back a long time. It began as an addiction to caffeine and resulted in a friendship that provides comfort with every cup.
I had my first true taste of coffee in middle school, specifically 8th grade. Now I had tried coffee before then but I didn't truly appreciate it until then. It was small cups from the corner store before school that I found that even "bad" coffee could give you a jolt that took you from half asleep to wide awake within a few sips.

My involvement with coffee went on like this for awhile. Only drinking it for its caffeine value and not really for its taste. I never really disliked the taste but milk and a couple sugars definitely helped. In early high school I came upon my first energy drinks I could go from half asleep to bouncing off the walls in a matter of minutes. It was fantastic. I started tossing back energy drinks daily. This was also when I was first introduced to starbucks and the idea of espresso. This tiny shot of what I used to drink but it was far more powerful than two sips of coffee. I would order up 2-3 shots at a time and polish them off without any milk or sugar. I had gotten so used to the taste of coffee I could drink it black. I could even have a shot of espresso and go to bed. I was beyond addicted.
Senior year of high school was when it first occurred to me  that not having enough caffeine in my system could negatively effect me. One morning I didn't have my daily coffee and got a pounding headache. This was new to me, I didn't understand what was wrong. After school I took a customary trip to starbucks for a shot or two of espresso and found that my headache disappeared. I knew that I needed to change. For the next few months I drank 1-2 liters of water a day and stopped drinking coffee completely.

I am an Architecture student and caffeine addiction is an easy crutch for all nighters when we are freshman. It took a lot of effort to stay off of it. I started drinking coffee again but much more casually, and began brewing in my dorm. I had a tiny one cup drip and hated using the thing. The stuff that I was getting from tops just wouldn't cut it. I managed to stay away from coffee for much of my freshman and sophomore year.

In junior year of college I started experimenting with a traditional old espresso pot of my grandmother's it was like a gift from God. With a minimal  amount of effort I could produce the liquid gold in better quality than starucks could ever provide. I took my first trip to Porto Rico a coffee importing company in New York City. I went back to school with freshly roasted  imported coffee from Colombia. I received an electric version of  the stovetop pot from my parents as a house warming gift from my parents to my new apartment. I also received a set of espresso cups. I was set. I started brewing for friends and getting them hooked on good coffee.

Fast forward to today. I have experimented with many methods of brewing techniques and have a much deeper understanding of coffee in its variety of flavors, roasts etc.

In my next post I will be talking about the research that I have done on the subject of coffee.