Fresh Roasted Coffee

You know, since I started beginning every day with a cup of fresh roasted coffee, my day has had a certain rhythm to it that I have found comforting and reassuring. I used to get up about ten minutes before I had to go to work, quickly hose off in the shower, grab a bite of something as I ran out the door, and swallow down some crappy instant coffee. That instant coffee wasn't something that I'd enjoy like a fresh roasted coffee. It was something that I had to get down to jump start my body into action two hours before I would have preferred to get moving on its own. Although my instant French roast coffee was somewhat comforting, because it would make me not feel so exhausted, really there wasn't that much more joy in drinking it than in, say, popping pep pills.

Now that I start each day with fresh roasted coffee, things are different. I get up a little earlier, so that I have a full forty-five minutes before I have to go to work. I take a relaxing shower while my fresh roasted coffee percolates, and then have time to enjoy a cup with the morning paper and a nice toasted bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and Nova Scotia lox, as well as a banana, while I sip it slowly and let the day wash over me. I wouldn't say it's luxurious, but it is nice compared to how I used to do it. It is even better on Sundays, when I get to sit back with a cup of fresh roasted coffee and the whole fat New York Times Sunday section, just whiling the hours away and enjoying listening to the Sunday folk and blues shows on public radio.

I don't really have a favorite kind of fresh roasted coffee. It is so much better to get to switch around, sometimes drinking French roast, otherwise a nice tart cup of Kona blend coffee, or perhaps something even more exotic. Sometimes I add a little dark chocolate and cardamom to my fresh roasted coffee to give it a little bit of that creamy, spiced flavor and I'll tell you: there is nothing on earth that tastes better as far as I know. But really, I like it all as long as its fresh coffee. It's the variety that makes life enjoyable as far as I'm concerned.