The divine brew

It's now 1.29 in the afternoon, and I've already downed two medium sized coffees- one black and a soy latte. And I'm contemplating a third... If there were a Coffeeholic's Anonymous, I would be the founding member- seriously. Jude would call it my "desert-island" food. That and maybe sushi. Who cares if it ultimately all goes to your butt, dehydrates your system and stains your teeth in a way only tobacco rivals... It delivers a cardiac punch nothing else can.

Sadly, the one coffee drink I love most is the one we can't get here in the whole of blinking North America: a butter- (or Planta, I suspect) roasted kopi-O. My sister sent me a pack of it just after I went home to visit and it's now all gone... The closest I think we get to a good dark roast like that here is Vietnamese coffee, which isn't even that great without the condensed milk. Italian coffee is a close second but not enough cafes here in Ann Arbor brew those- it's a college town remember? The kids here like their coffee sippable and slurpable through a straw...

American black coffee does not even come near the vicinity of being good coffee. Someone please tell these Americans that the sorry excuse of a coffee they serve at diners/ restaurants are an embarassment to coffee beans all over the world. The best coffee tastes great black- no sugar, no cream. None of that caramel-macchiato-extra-whipped-cream-and-syrup-thank-you concoctions. And no, decaf is not coffee.

Soy latte, now that's a drink that could take me off black coffee if I let it. The soy milk gives the drink a little nutty taste that's rich, without being overtly overwhelming. It's for those ocassions when you feel you just need something milky but a bubble tea would just be too cruel to your waistline. It doesn't replace a good black coffee (yet...), but a comforting alternative in these increasingly colder climes here in the Midwest.

So until I go home again, the Jamaican coffee in our freezer would just have to do. That or there's always Starbucks...