An ode to my favorite morning companion

Written March 6, 2023

Day 13 of 40 in a 45-day period: The person responsible for the Folgers jingle, “The best part of waking up, Is Folgers in your cup!” truly understands the promise of the morning coffee. While Starbucks Cold Brew remains my coffee of choice, I’ve been working to lessen my investor status in the company and have tried to embrace hot coffee as well. It’s a work in progress.

A good cup of coffee promises you can do hard things, like get out of bed coming off a night filled with wake-ups. It gives you something to look forward to the next day when you haven’t had the best of days, and you wake up and inhale the promise of possibility. Maybe you remark to your coffee, “Mmmmmm, you’re just so good.” Maybe that’s just me. Each day I write out a list of 10 things I’m thankful for, and Cold Brew holds a top spot.

My grandfather was a Sanka drinker and I can still remember taking a sip and then grimacing if it was a sip near the bottom of the cup where the grinds from his instant coffee would settle. At Grandma Traber’s house, we were allowed to have a cup of decaf once we had our shot of orange juice first. That decaf coffee may have been the inspiration for the line of coffee drinks that taste nothing like coffee as a few packs of Sweet’N Low and milk made for a delicious cup of Joe’s sweet, weak cousin, Jeff.

In high school while working at The Bagel Bin and opening at 6 a.m. I began to enjoy coffee for its caffeinating effects, and in college, coffee was a tasty treat (although my first love was Diet Coke - that’s a story for another time).

I learned not to mix a lot of coffee and an apple after not eating dinner while driving home from Ocean City. It was only by the grace of some higher power that I made it over the Bay Bridge with two-way traffic on the east-bound lanes and tore into the Wawa parking lot that prevented the effects of too much coffee from ruining my car and my pride.

There have been times when I’ve considered finding an alternative, but then I remember coffee brings me great joy and is one of the few constants in my life. I can count on coffee to show up each morning and occasionally in the afternoon.

Why mess with a good thing?