Coffee

I don't remember whether I've mentioned this before or not, but I recently gave myself over to a coffee habit. I now drink a double cup of coffee every morning after breakfast. I read somewhere that a moderate amount of coffee was actually good for your heart, which seemed like a sufficient excuse to start drinking it. I've always had a somewhat romanticized view of coffee-drinking, probably because all my grandparents did/do it. Of course, half of them also smoked and I didn't have any sort of inclination to take up a cigarette habit...

Anyway, I like coffee. And now I drink coffee. This week, I determined that I only want my coffee to taste like coffee. I bought some cinnamon and something-or-other flavored blend, mostly because it was the only non-decaf blend that was on sale at the grocery store. (in case you didn't know, i'm obsessed with buying things on sale. i won't go into that now though. it is an obsession that deserves a post all its own.)

So I brewed a serving of this flavored coffee and decided after the first sip that I didn't like it and would be making another trip to the store as soon as possible. I waited a few minutes and then went ahead and took a second sip, just in case it improved after the initial shock. Nope. I pushed the cup over to Doug and went back to my water. With every flavored coffee I've ever tasted, the flavoring just tasted like chemicals to me. No different with this one. So, from now on, I will be getting only coffee flavored coffee.

My favorite is very dark French Roast and I drink it, not completely black, but with only 1/4 tsp each of sugar and creamer. I guess I like my coffee to wake me up by reaching out of the cup and slapping me. What I also find fascinating is the effect that my coffee habit has had on my night time cravings. I usually start craving caffeine at night, particularly when I haven't had a soda with dinner. Pre-coffee, this craving was always for Dr. Pepper. Now it's a craving for coffee.

Don't get me wrong, I still love me some D.P., but what I crave at night is coffee. It only took me giving in to that craving one time to realize that coffee has a lot more caffeine than soda, however. I drank a cup at 9:30 p.m. and didn't get to sleep until 1 a.m. Oops. Now, when I start to crave caffeine at night, I just go to bed. If I stay awake, then I'll keep wandering blindly into the kitchen and snacking. (we don't keep soda in the house anymore.)