Taste Memory: Coffeemate

Empty coffee cup of shots of iced espresso.

There is music, that when I listen to it, I am immediately transported back to the time and place that I first listened to it. For example, Tegan and Sara's first CD This Business of Art, puts me right back in my Providence Apartment, taking turns playing video games with Jamie.  Catie Curtis reminds me of freshman year of college,  Girlyman puts me at Falcon Ridge folk festival, and I have many, many more musical triggers.

But this isn't about music, it's about food. Well, not food exactly, but a food like product. I usually take my coffee black. This habit was learned when I was with the Red Cross, specifically during Hurricane Katrina. I was working in our office, getting volunteers ready for deployment to Louisiana, and was working on average, 14 hour days. We had a lot of coffee around, and while I am not a coffee addict now, I was seriously one then.  I would get my cup of black coffee, a pack of peanut butter crackers, and begin my workday.  I would have 1 or two more cups of black coffee during the day, while making phone calls, greeting volunteers, and watching the four tvs we had in our office, turned to CNN, Weather Channel, Local news, and (depending on who won that day, either Fox News or MSNBC).

It would hit about 3 or 4pm, when I usually would begin to get a little burnt out, and I couldn't deal with another cup of black coffee. So I would make myself a cup of coffee, dump some sugar in, and some coffeemate creamer. I'd take my cup outside, and take a ten or fifteen minute break, sitting under a tree, and I'd call one of my friends, to hear them talk, and remind myself that there was a world outside my office. 

This morning, I went down to get some coffee, and I really didn't feel like black coffee, or hot coffee, So while I was maguyver-ing a solution to my problems, I got two esspresso shots out of the coffee machine, and mixed in coffeemate, and sugar. and when the coffeemate hit the hot coffee, I was immediately back at the Red Cross office, and a wave of nostalgia hit me. I know that a lot of people romanticize their first 'real' jobs, but I really had a great one, even though at times it was epically stressful. I had a great team of co-workers, an awesome boss, and a really supportive environment.

Then I poured the mix over a cup full of ice and drank it down. 

In other news: hi. hi. hi. hi. how are you doing? I am good, hi. hi. hi. hi. hi. two shots of espresso drunk in ten minutes? AWESOME. hi. hi.