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When I First Tasted Coffee
Copyright 2014 Christina M. Guerrero
First published at Suite.io
DEDICATION
To coffee
STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Self-explanatory.
ABOUT THE DRAFTS
First draft:
In my mind the articles are long and entertaining.
On paper or on the screen they are short and need clarifications,
among other things.
When I was a child, the adults drank a lot of coffee, most often in the mornings.
They would make breakfast for the children and while doing so, get that container of coffee and open it, sometimes close to my plate of food.
I would nonchalantly lean over and smell the grounds. They were bitter, sort of chocolatey, woody, and not unpleasant. The scent made me feel hungry.
The adults would add scoops of the grounds to a coffee maker, or use a pour-over cone, and pour boiled water over the fragrant ground coffee beans.
After waiting, they would take the cup of coffee to the table, and eat and drink and chat.
The coffee smelled different from the grounds: not quite as strong, less inviting, disappointing.
And when the day came that I took a few sips ... it also tasted different from what I was expecting.
I know now that the preparation was not always proper. The water had not been boiled long enough, nor added correctly. The proportions of coffee to water were not to my taste; it was usually too weak. Sometimes I would get a sip of old, cold coffee, and it tasted either what I imagined a burnt brown crayon would taste like, or, worse, watery cigarettes. Not to mention the taste of improperly prepared coffee with too much sugar and/or cream.
Over all, when I was a child, coffee tasted too sugary, too old, too weak, or a combination thereof.
I would watch the coffee preparation with interest for quite some time, but eventually I stopped caring. The finished product never lived up to the scent.
It would be many years before I truly cared about coffee.
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