Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Coffee Pot Trucks

Coffee on the go in 1956 --  Gevalia serves it up!!  Check out the great pics from Retronaut.

via www.retronaut.com

Cafe & a Muff

It's a well-known fact that blueberry muffins increase your metabolism as well as endorphin levels, thereby counteracting any possible ill effect due to fat or sugar.  When eaten with coffee on a pretty plate, the effect is increased by 3.  Just so you know. :)

Chocolate Sprinkles

My nod to Chocolate Friday - low-fat sugar-free chocolate milk in my morning cuppa, and chocolate sprinkles on top!  I couldn't find the precise sugar content of a chocolate sprinkle, but sugar is the first ingredient on the bottle, so....  Well, says I to myself, go ahead, throw caution to the wind!  What harm can a few chocolate sprinkles do, fer cryin' out loud??

 

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Morning Ritual

Morning Ritual

ritual (ˈrɪtjʊəl)
the prescribed or established form of a religious or other ceremony
stereotyped activity or behaviour
any formal act, institution, or procedure that is followed consistently: the ritual of the law

I guess my morning ritual can't be precisely defined as a ritual. It's not religious... quite. It's not formal, especially since it's usually done half-asleep. I need a better word.  What's the word that means ... something you do every day that gives you a huge amount of comfort.

My morning habit-custom-almost-ritual includes this:

Now, I don't put a LOT of sugar in my morning coffee, but I do enjoy my steamed milk sweetened. Correction -- used to.  Never did I think, not in my wildest dreams, that I would be diagnosed with diabetes and have to stop putting sugar in my coffee. 

Now that that little bit of sugar has become forbidden fruit, it begins to loom large like an obolisk, the shadow of which falls across my coffee cup darkly.

Typical.  You always want most what you can't have.  What you're not supposed to have.

 

I've had to start shopping for all things "sugar free".  I guess I'm going to have to learn to cook with splenda and Sweet'nLow.  I'm sure there are some good recipes I can try that don't taste like crap.  My dentist will be happy, I guess.  But man, how that forbidden fruit makes my mouth water now.

 

Sigh

Coffee Cellar for Your iPhone

Man, I sure wish I had an iPhone, so I could test this cutey little app.  It looks nifty. 

It's a personalized coffee library, which I guess would be especially useful if you're a gal-about-town and need to remember where you found that really great espresso you had last week. You can add icons and photos, keywords, and it even includes a rating system, which means you can find your favorite coffee spots sooper easy.

If anybody with an IPhone gets this app please come back and add your comments here!

More info and where to buy here.

Oh So Many New Things!

Tootin this horn that belongs to me. :) 

In the process of trying to clean up my sidebar links, my housekeeping project turned into much much more than I had planned.  I'm still a bit mystified by all this social networking stuff, but I'm trying to catch up to the world.  Even if I am still running behind, I can see all your heinies ahead of me now, bouncing along in the summer sun. 

So here's some of my new stuff:

I'm finally on Facebook. I've created a page just for my coffee/tea/chocolate obsession. Please drop by and say hi.

I've also created an account on FoodBuzz.com, another social networking site for foodies. I'm still kicking around the kitchen there.

 

Now, about those links... I decided to just scrap the old list and start from scratch. It was sooooo depressing to see so many broken links - like dead blog friends, gone forever from the blogosphere. Gone to blog heaven? Sigh.

I've created a couple of new pages for links, which should be easier to manage. I hope. You'll notice these new buttons on the sidebar. They take you directly to the links pages for coffee, tea and chocolate. There is also a category for foodies but I got tired of making buttons. Heh.

I'm slowly adding links to these pages.  If you have a blog or website that you want to suggest please use this form to send me your suggestion.

Let's see, anything else? Oh yeah, new photo album here: Coffee, Tea, Chocolate Pics. I haven't deleted my Flickr albums, just trying something new.

Ok, I think I'm done tooting. I know, I know, where's the Beano?

Coffee Health Benefits

I just love this kind of video/sound byte -- great visuals, short, sweet, to the point, and a narrator with a lovely British accent.

Slice of Heaven

 

Lovely cup, big, deep, thin-rimmed, filled with double shot espresso made from freshly roasted beans, topped by a layer of foam and a sprinkle of cocoa.

 

Great way to start the day!!!

Roasting Again!!!

I'm happy to report that I am roasting again. Woot! After a thorough cleaning, my coffee roaster is up and working, thank goodness. 8 layers of dust did it no harm that I can tell. And as luck would have it, it rained this morning, and the temp is lower, so I didn't feel bad running the roaster.

Progress pics ( I pulled the camera out of retirement too, can you tell? )

From filthy to clean

Roasting and Roasted

I'm going to have to order more beans, these that I used were pretty old -- not sure HOW old, over a year for sure. But since they were dry and cool they should still be good. I'll let ya know if the coffee is any good.

Coffee Slump

slump

noun

1

a : a marked or sustained decline especially in economic activity or prices b : a period of poor or losing play by a team or individual

My slump has been both marked AND sustained. 

Causes?  I blame it on the heat, and a long list of lacks -- energy, health, money ... energy.  One day I didn't have the energy to roast.  And then I forgot to order green beans.  And then money got tight so I bought a cheap brand of beans at the grocery store.  Then one morning I didn't have the energy to grind - it really sux to feel sick all the time -  so I  ** gasp ** used my honey's pre-ground Folgers coffee. 

Enough is enough.  In an effort to rise up from the bottom of my coffee slump, I pulled out the coffee roaster and this is what I found:

Appalling, I know. 

I don't think a simple wash will do it.  I'm getting out the air compressor.  It's got 125 psi pounds per square inch OOMPH. 

Wish me luck!