CurlyShavings

Today was my last day to have coffee for a while. No, I'm not dropping caffeine, just coffee. Why? Hmmm....

Well, it's an expensive habit. A teabag is not only much more portable, it's cheap, too. Oh, and how does one throw away a teabag? Squish it out and drop it in the trash. Coffee? Well, I suppose there are single-serve coffee bags, but they never really taste like coffee. French press, now that's the way to go. What a mess.

I suppose one could argue fair trade, shade-grown and environmental impact as reasons for dropping coffee. That's part of it, but not all of it.

It's mostly because I have become the worst coffee snob I know. I can argue the differences between Starbucks and Phoenix, African vs Indonesian and why I can't stand bright coffee from Central America. I travel with a french press and grind my own beans, moments before adding the precisely filtered and boiled water. Yuck, I can't stand myself.

We're almost out of coffee in the house. My wife has a small stash of flavored stuff hidden somewhere. I have nearly a pound of organic Sumatran decaf that needs grinding (keeping it for entertaining). But I'm really done for a while. I'm not sure what would convince me to go back. I've gradually dropped myself to a single cup per day and tomorrow I switch to tea.

I started coffee a few years back when I took over WSO at work. Couldn't keep up, so I started burning the candle at the one end I was best at, the early end. It became a social ritual and then I found that there were differences in blends and regions, the terroir, they say. And then I couldn't drink it without knowing what I was drinking, where it was from and making notes. As I said earlier, yuck, I can't stand myself.

So, in case I'm completely unable to type this next week, you'll know.