Morning cup of joe

Let me just say that I have not always been a coffee drinker.  I would have a rare cappuccino with dessert on a special occasion at a restaurant or a heavily sweetened coffee-like concoction from Starbucks for a treat every once in awhile.  About 6 months before we moved to Hawaii, I bought a single-serve Keurig coffee maker on sale and I became quite enamored with its ease of use, the cute little pre-measured coffee pods and the relative consistent quality of my homemade brew.  I then introduced the coffee to a generous pour of Carnation Italian Sweet Cream creamer, ALWAYS in my favorite coffee mug and my morning routine now included coffee, just one cup.  

My favorite mug!

This comforting morning ritual gained momentum as a necessity for me in Hawaii where I was up and on conference calls at 5AM to coincide with the Pacific Time Zone of my Seattle colleagues.  My coffee life was further improved by a chance visit to Thunder Mountain Kona Coffee Roasters on the Big Island. Again, I am not a connoisseur, but I began buying their raw beans and grinding my own coffee for use in my own refillable K-cup filter.  Good for me, good for the environment, and you could buy the beans at Costco, win/win.

In May, I bid a sad farewell to my Keurig as it was wrapped and packed for its voyage across the ocean headed for a storage unit on the mainland.  Would it be safe?  Wouldn't it be lonesome sitting in the dark all wrapped in paper until its release....who knows when?  It wasn't the coffee maker that I was feeling anxious about, it was the comfort of the routine.  No daily budget for Starbucks could replace the quiet, relaxing relationship with my mug and its steamy dark brew. 

On the first few weeks back on the mainland I was lucky enough to share my morning cup of joe with my BFF at her breakfast bar where we would scan the morning news and chat.  But the day was approaching when I would no long have access to this morning luxury.  

Our first few days in Portland, OR sans Keurig were filled with experiments into deprivation or coffee surrogates. Each new place we stayed had a version of the tried and true "Mr. Coffee" pot for brewing a vat of coffee. The water to coffee ratio in pot brewing was not in my wheelhouse.   You might be thinking, as you are reading this, "Geez, you probably can't swing a cat in Portland without hitting a coffee shop."  While that is true, my preferred observance of my coffee ritual does not include drinking it in the company of loud strangers or walking down the street with it in a paper cup.

However, Portland did provide a resolution to my coffee conundrum.  At one of the street fairs we attended, we stopped into a coffee and tea brewing emporium that did not actually serve beverages but did display a multitude of brewing devices accompanied by a knowledgeable brewmeister who tipped us off to a very portable solution to my problem.  

This device is divine it its simplicity, portability, price point and quality of brew.  The GSI Collapsible Java Drip ($10 on Amazon), a box of #2 filters from Trader Joes and 2 Tbl spoons of whatever coffee I choose has given me the comfort of my uninterrupted coffee respite from Portland to Seattle to Loreto, Mexico.  

  

    

    I am now comforted by my morning cup of joe wherever I go.  Sorry for the rhyme.