Coffee, the anti-drug

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how I don’t understand coffee. I vey much prefer tea, and still do, but it’s funny what happens over the course of a year. It’s funny how quickly you can change – or how fast things change around you. I had written about my early university days of drinking instant coffee, because the taste was quite comforting.

A year of Starbucks, Gloria Jeans and other miscellaneous hipster coffee shops later: I now know what my relationship with coffee is.

I’ve never had much more than your “crappuccino” or “crapper”, that is, your instant coffee powder and water. After disliking commercial bubble tea and the sweetness of fruit tea and boba, as well as tea with any kind of topping, I moved on to other beverage stands and thus found my way to Starbucks and Gloria Jeans. I had not really liked the taste of an espresso, but I soon found about other ways coffee could be made. I liked my coffee with just a hint of milk, and after discovering my very bad reactions to lactose I opted for soy milk. Other days I liked my coffee with a lot of milk, or I preferred a mocha.

Many people can’t get by without their coffee in the morning, but I can go without. I realised that I don’t need coffee to wake me up. It doesn’t get me going in the morning, and I don’t feel any different when I have it. What I do notice, though, is that coffee cheers me up. If I am in a bad mood, anyone can buy me a soy macchiato and I will probably cheer up. The other thing is, I don’t always like to buy standard coffees. I like to buy the Christmas editions and the flavoured specialties.

As I have told people for at least the past few months, coffee for me is a treat and a beverage; and not a wake-me-up, but a pick-me-up.