Just Good Coffee

 I haven't said a lot about coffee here, but I'm devoting a whole post to coffee this morning.  You might wonder why I'm doing this.  Coffee is simply a part of my morning routine.  Until my heart attack I was a heavy consumer of caffeine.  But those heavily caffeinated days are behind me now.  I begin each day with two larger-than-normal cups of coffee and avoid all caffeine and sugar throughout the day.  

Prior to my heart attack I drank a lot of coffee and caffeinated beverages, not giving mich thought to my health or sleep schedule.  I've been a night owl for as long as I can remember, but while caffeinated beverages have always been a part of my lifestyle, I didn't get into coffee until my seminary days where they served coffee in the cafeteria.  I used to have one cup with cream and sugar, but found that doctoring my coffee held up the line, so I learned to drink it black and never went back.

It was then I became a heavy coffee drinker and always was until my heart attack.  Those two cups in the morning is all the caffeine I have now.  And I simply avoid sugar now., which is sometimes hard to do.  Sometimes it takes something drastic like a heart attack to change a person, but it did change me.  I think more about what I consume.  When I had my heart attack, I went from 215 to 185 in just a matter of days

My doctor said that 185 was my ideal weight, but these days I'm about 195.  It's just that I HAD to change.  These days I begin my mornings with two cups of hot black coffee with a good English tobacco in my pipe.  I'm not really a fussy coffee drinker, but prefer a light to medium roasted coffee.  As a recent birthday gift one of my sons gave me a larger-than-normal sized coffee cup that I fill twice in the mornings with a good coffee.  And this is my caffeine for the day.  

But I learned the hard way what caffeine did to my heart.  I try to limit sugar to just breakfast with a doughnut or something similar.  But those days of sugar and caffeine are over for me.  I liken a good cup of black coffee to a glass of good Cabernet.  I don't go for the cheapest coffee, but prefer to grind my own beans.  Generally the beans cost a bit more like a good Cabernet, but in my thinking the extra cost is worth it.

I have my favorite coffees like I have my favorite wines.  But I've found the best of both being moderately priced.  Some say Blue Mountain coffee is the best, but it can be $60 or more a pound these days.  Like Cabernets that are expensive, good is always moderately priced.  But there is something about a good coffee with a good tobacco that is always a nice combination and sets the tone for the rest of day.  That half hour with the cup of coffee and my pioe is the best half hour of the day.  

That first sip with the first puff is always the very best.  I sometimes wish I had more coffee some days, so I'll keep a bag of decaf ground around in case I'd like more coffee later, but the morning quiet with my first cup and my first pipe is simply the best it can be, if just for a little while.  Life can't be spent drinking coffee and smoking a pipe, but I simply savor those few moments in the morning.  It's simply the best.

I liken the first sip of hot black coffee to my first sip of a good Cabernet with my wife's spaghetti dinner.  No spaghetti dinner is complete without a good Cabernet.  The feeling is the same.  Her spaghetti can be likened to my pipe with coffee.  One isn't complete without the other.  Today it my Lee Van Cleef Meerschaum pipe with the Captains Bob and Black.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave