Coffee

So we’ve had the new bed for almost a week now, and with only a little insomnia hiccup (due to someone coughing cold death for several days), it’s been a week of solid blissful sleep. However, we’re finding that a comfortable, sleep-friendly bed comes at a price: for those of us who aren’t early-morning risers, who will never be early morning risers, the bed makes it even harder to get up at 6am. That mattress just absorbs energy; you hit it and you suddenly just don’t want to go anywhere. Desperately don’t want to go anywhere.

But work doesn’t wait. Students fill classrooms, clients want copy. The sun’s rising, the trash needs to go out, and the dog has his legs crossed and is doing a little I-gotta-pee dance. So that’s where coffee comes to the rescue.

We like coffee around here, and we brew it strong. Most of it goes into my cup; I get a pot going first thing in the morning, and Kristi’s out the door with a travel mug. I usually polish off the rest of the pot over the course of the day. I couldn’t get through the day without good coffee, a habit I picked up about ten years ago working in the telecom industry. I wouldn’t want to go through the day without it.

Here’s what we use:

Cinnamon Hazelnut beans, Pacific Coast Cafe brand. I don’t know if you can get this on the East Coast; we buy it at our local Savemart here in Modesto, stocking up whenever it goes on sale at $5.99/lb. We usually have at least four pounds stocked in the freezer at any given time. Back in Orlando I brewed Starbucks French Roast, but that crap’s expensive. Pacific Coast Cinnamon Hazelnut is cheaper and tastes better, in my opinion.

Sweetened French Vanilla coffee creamer. Usually the Savemart store brand – again, cheaper and tastes at least as good as the more expensive stuff. Lately though we’ve been using Coffeemate Peppermint Mocha creamer, and that’s some good stuff. Pour some of that in a cup of strong, quality coffee and you’ve got a pretty close approximation of a $5 Starbucks peppermint mocha at a fraction of the price.

And don’t buy the ground, vacuum-packed stuff. Grind your own beans – you’ll get more and better flavor for your money. We got a Krups coffee grinder as a wedding gift and use it every day. We love it.

But of course, what makes good coffee is a good coffee maker. They range from super cheap Mr. Coffee machines at Walmart to super expensive units that do far more than any sane home coffee drinker would ever need. Again, a wedding gift came to our rescue this year: a Krups programmable coffee maker. Brews excellent coffee and features several protection mechanisms to keep the coffee from burning, the water from overflowing, etc. Best of all, you can program it the night before to have a pot ready five minutes before you get up.

How about you guys? Any other coffee achievers out there with tips to share?