Monday, April 04, 2016

Ways I Am Not A Grown-Up, The Twenty-First In A Potentially Infinite Series

I don't drink coffee. I never have, not one single cup. 

Sometimes when someone new in my life hears that I don't drink coffee, they are so shocked that an adult person doesn't drink coffee that they will ask me why I don't drink coffee.

I am never really sure how to answer that question. I just never picked up the habit. I had a sip of coffee once, by accident, when I was about eight. It was awful and not merely because I was expecting hot cocoa. Then I worked at Burger King through most of high school, most of that time in drive-thru where the big coffee pots ran night and day so the very smell of coffee is associated with toiling away my adolescence surrounded by other angsty and miserable teens. 

I have awkwardly defended my position on coffee more than a few times. Once, I even defended it in writing. I was reading Natalie Goldberg's Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir and came across the following writing prompt: 

"Tell me how you drink coffee. When? Where?

If you don't drink coffee, tell me how you stopped."

It apparently never occurred to Natalie Goldberg, who is one of my heroes on the planet in so many other ways, that a grown-up human being might have never been a coffee drinker. So, therefore, if I don't drink coffee, I am clearly not a member in good standing of the grown-up club. 

Not that that will come as a shock to anyone who has spent anytime around here. This isn't a "potentially infinite" series for nothing, folks. 


C is for Coffee (or the lack thereof) 


10 comments:

  1. Ha! Ha! I guess I have never thought of drinking/not drinking coffee this way. My mother was a tea drinker. I am a coffee drinker. I have members in my family who don't drink either. Good food (or drink) for thought today.

    Paula from
    Smidgen, Snippets, & Bits

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    1. Coffee does seem to be some sort of cultural default for grown-ups. Your mention of tea reminded me that my grandfather was a tea drinker--never coffee either. So maybe I inherited my distaste for coffee from him, but I didn't get his love of tea either--I have a cup of hot tea maybe every few years.

      Thanks for visiting!

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  2. Yeah, I don't indulge. But I used to. That is until I became addicted to it. Then if for whatever reason, I didn't have that cup first thing in the morning, I wasn't pleasant to be around. I kicked the habit and stick to decaf green tea now.

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    1. Not having a coffee habit did not stop me from having a caffeine habit. I got my daily dose in the form of Diet Dr. Pepper for a really long time. I recently gave up DDP--for reasons unrelated to the caffeine or any other health concern. I now mostly drink water. I was surprised how easily I made the transition. :)

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  3. Wow, never had coffee...i wish i hadnt....its like an addiction....i drink much less than i used to drink. Maybe its just a part of the daily routine and i feel off when it's missing.

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    1. I think you have lots of company in that addiction, Tina. Thanks for stopping by. :)

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  4. My husband never had coffee until he thought my cafe mocha smelled good on vacation. Now he enjoys it, especially if I get the ones that taste like hot cocoa. He never really drank beer until he met me, either. And then I showed him the ways of a beer snob, and he discovered chocolate porters and stouts. So. I either ruined my husband, or he was already a choco-holic;) I was addicted to Diet Coke years ago, now I also drink a lot of water, and can't drink soda at all.

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    1. I still have an occasional soda when eating out--more as a reflex than anything else. It's like I forget that I don't drink soda anymore.

      As for your husband, I think you definitely should take credit. Being a "bad" influence is fun every once in a while. :)

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