Coffee

Time for some.

I've been going pretty much non-stop since 8 a.m. yesterday, and a late lunch at Chipotle's plus a cuppa at Angel Falls sounds wonderful. I may even buy a pound of whole beans there.

My feelings are very mixed about that pound, though. Yes, it's a nice little local business and yes, it's all Fair Trade, but the owner (and roaster) is Venezuelan. Now I have no quarrel with Venezuela and Chavez, but Venezuelan coffee is about the lightest roast available. It's like green plants.

Somehow, I got to talking with a student about tea and coffee today and that reminded me of my own background. When I was in college, I had an old Sunbeam coffee maker in my dorm room. The one in the movie is glass, but mine was metal. Made an amazing amount of noise, heat and steam, was difficult to clean out, and made terrible coffee. I stepped up to a cheap aluminum dripolator from a dime store. It was similar to these. What an improvement! Mr. Coffee was far in our future, but I fell in love with drip coffee.

This must be an addiction. In addition to a LARGE variety of coffee cups, saucers, spoons, etc., I now own:

• 4-cup Mr. Coffee
• 8-cup Mr. Coffee
• Smallish Bialetti espresso maker
• Incredible hand-blown Chemex which I got at Goodwill for about $2
• and the cutest little Melitta plastic cone, which makes wonderful coffee.

I had a chance at a cheap French press a while back (Barnes & Noble closeout), but I passed on that, remembering the nightmare of getting Sunbeam cleaned after using it.

Time to go. My stomach clock has gone off.