Friday, June 23, 2006

On coffee

Michael peer-pressured me into drinking coffee during the first years of our romance. He did it with iced coffee. I was still resisting his tactics when I was faced with a particularly delicious blended coffee beverage in 1999. We were on our way to Burning Man when we dined at this hip restaurant in Reno that served a milkshake called the Princess Erin. Think vanilla ice cream with espresso, banana and peanut butter - there may have been chocolate involved as well. I couldn't bring myself to order it, despite the appropriateness of the name, but Michael had one sent over. The sip I forced myself to drink planted the caffeine seed in my body. From there, it was an easy transition to the assortment of coffee drinks that Michael pushed on me.

These days I only drink double americanos or africanos if they are available (I've only seen them in Victoria - basically an americano with steamed milk). I'm sort of like the characters Meg and Hamilton Swan from the movie Best in Show - the yuppie couple that met at Starbucks when they both drank lattés. Like me, they moved onto americanos. Like them, I've also had braces - though not at the same time as Michael (who never had braces).

Now I drink more coffee than Michael. I'd say he drinks a few cups a week, while I need a cup a day (I'm enjoying a delicious cup at Rebar in my profile picture). Most people drink way more coffee than me, I don't deny it. For instance, I don't rival Mr. Death, who drank 40 cups of coffee a day before he died in 1999. He also smoked six packs of cigarettes daily.

There is no tentative plan in this post - no plan to quit the coffee. I'm hooked. Whether I'm working in an office, studying at university or puttering around town on Saturday morning, coffee is part of my daily ritual. I often have to convince Michael to join me.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erin, I think the profile pic in question demonstrates your instant mastery of bloggerface. Chin down, eyes up... and surely coffee could get credit as an official blogger accessory. Well done!

brie said...

Erin! That's two posts this week. So much for your tentative plan to not blog more than once a week :)

It's a great blog so far.

Anonymous said...

I used to drink shots of espresso with flavoured syrup on ice all day long when I worked at Jimmy Java in Saskatoon. Then I gave it up for a few years. And now I'm up all night if I have even a sip of anything coffee flavoured after 5 pm.

And speaking of Meg Swan and caffeine... have you seen that commercial for Pepsi with Parker Posey? Love it!

Erin Riley said...

i can't drink coffee after noon - unless i plan to stay up past midnight. it makes me wonder about after dinner coffees. who can drink them??

Lydia said...

i loved an after dinner coffee so much in europe. but at home, i like to do an after dinner tea...maybe a lightly caffeinated one such as green.

i've gone back to my morning habit of making coffee at home, now that i've disconnected it with smoking, and i am enjoying it.

Anonymous said...

yesterday it was 6 pm and i still had not had coffee, or breakfast for that matter. as a big breakfast, lots of strong coffee and a solid grasp of the weekend globe is important to me on the weekends, i acted out the entire routine, despite the late hour. then after the hefty dose of eggs and avacados i went to a baby shower, ate some more and washed every thing down with black tea. i slept like a baby, but not the baby at the shower who cried a lot and slept only a little.