Converted To Black Coffee (with a spoonful of sugar)

by Gildreth

I am a bona fide coffee addict. I can't get through the morning without my cup of joe, and I'm pretty particular about how my coffee is prepared. I even paid sixteen dollars for a brushed steel coffee scoop sold by that snooty coffee company from Berkeley.

I take my coffee strong. I buy my beans ground fine, like the kind you would use in a cone coffee strainer, even though I have a regular drip machine. I buy Italian roast, or espresso roast, if I can get it at the grocery store. I buy one of those fancy brands, either the one from Berkeley or the one from Seattle.

When I'm lucky, I catch the bus across town and go to the local coffee roaster. They're the ones who got me hooked on strong, full-bodied coffee. I only need to use one scoopful of their Sumatra roast. But usually I just use two level scoops of the grocery store grounds with my fancy coffee scoop.

I leave the coffee pot in the machine, because it doesn't seem to agree with me how much one cup is. I use my favorite big, twelve-ounce coffee mug to measure and pour water into my coffee maker, and the markings on the side always show between two and three cups.

I became kind of a coffee snob after my doctor diagnosed me with lactose intolerance. Used to be I'd drink any kind of coffee and just use milk to cut it if it tasted bad.

After my doctor told me why I'd been spending so much disagreeable time in the restroom though, I had to start taking my coffee black. Since then, I started paying attention to different roasts. Nowadays, the only thing I add to my coffee is two teaspoons of sugar.