Coffee

The thing I remember most from my first trip to Europe is the coffee. No wait, the first time I was here I hadn't started drinking coffee yet, so that's just a lie. I guess I don't remember coffee from my first trip at all. But now that I think of it, I DO remember the pastry. Those incredible layered chocolate cakes in Bavaria... But this isn't a post about cakes. This is a post about coffee, so let me see if I can get back on track so this train of thought can have a caboose. The point is that I eventually started drinking coffee, and after that I came here again several times, and each time I noticed how good the coffee was, and after I noticed it, I drank it. I drank way too much of it way too quickly. I was tense and anxious and edgy and thought, daily, that I just might have a heart attack at any minute. I didn't figure out that my symptoms were probably caused by the coffee until after I got home. It took awhile, though, because shortly after I returned home I thought I probably had a brain tumor because my head hurt so badly. Eventually the penny dropped and I figured out my headaches were caused by caffeine withdrawl. After that, I monitored my caffiene intake a little more closely. Of course, it was easier in the states - the coffee wasn't as strong - or as good.

Before I spent my first summer abroad in London, I'd never really spent time in England. Still, I was as excited about going back to the land of good coffee as exploring Britain. After arriving, I discovered very quickly that the coffee in England sucks. It's even worse than the coffee in the US. Really. I only survived because there were perks that had nothing to do with caffiene. The best of the perks were the incredible crepes in Hampstead. Truth be told, I'm ordinarily not that crazy about crepes. When it comes right down to it, I don't think it's really fair to call the things in Hampstead crepes. But that's what the makers call them, so what are you gonna do. They're made in a little crepe stand (Le Creperie de Hampstead, 77 Hampstead High St.) outside a pub (King William IV - a gay king that has this gay pub named after him, but that's another post) not far from Hamstead Heath. If you get within a hour of the place, you have to try them. They are that good.

But this is a post about coffee, or more correctly, coffee makers. One of our wedding gifts was a coffee maker. This coffeemaker is to coffee what The Creperie de Hampstead is to crepes. It's one of the Nespresso machines made by Krups. The coffee for the machine comes in in little coffee capsules (they're about the same size as those little plastic creamers that are in every diner in the US). There are a wide variety of blends.



Anyway, Natalie, who never reads this blog, wanted to see a picture of the coffee machine. So here it is, even though I doubt she'll see it:


By the way, in case you were wondering the answer is yes. I drank a cup before I wrote this. And yes, it does seem to make me more productive. If you can ignore the fact that I'm supposed to be studying Dutch instead of writing something for a blog, I mean...