You’ve all been waiting for it. I know. It’s finally…

COFFEE WEEK!

Kind of. Today is the day before my self-proclaimed Coffee Week really begins, since it’s tomorrow that I start waking up at 6:30 AM. Maybe that’s no big deal for some people, but the early morning was not designed for me. At least since college.

Still, I wanted to start thinking about coffee and hopefully get some feedback. I wanted to share how I ever got into coffee.

I said in a previous post that I don’t drink much coffee. I don’t drink coffee for caffeine, nor do I look for it in the morning. If I ever drink it, it’s because it’s offered or because I want something to make me warmer or cooler, depending on the weather. To be honest, I never started drinking coffee on even an irregular basis until two summers ago. And I have McDonald’s to thank for it.

Back in the summer of 2008, my parents and I went to California to see some family that lives there. While our enlarged family was driving around in a minivan, we were all hot and thirsty, so we stopped by a McDonald’s along the street. Inside, we saw their new iced coffee, and my parents ordered two. When we got the iced coffees, I tried a sip and thought, “Whoa, this stuff’s delicious. I love coffee now!”

Gateway drug.

Of course, I didn’t think about how McDonald’s standard iced coffee is doused in sugar and cream. I guess the California heat had gotten to me. When we came back home, I tried straight iced coffee and thought it was pretty nasty. I started recreating iced coffee at home by chilling coffee and adding in some sugar and half-and-half.

Basically, I wasn’t drinking coffee for coffee. I was drinking half-and-half and sugar that tasted a bit like coffee. Since then, my tastes have evolved. I still really like McDonald’s sugary drink, but now I just drink coffee with maybe a packet of sweetener. Iced. I don’t do well with really hot drinks.

So that was my growth into coffee. I’m still a relative newbie, but I’ve never made any claim to know anything about coffee.

How or when did any of you get into coffee? And how do you take it?