As David Lynch once said “Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.” Espresso, Flat White, Cappuccino, Latte, Americano, Café con leche, Macchiato or Mocha. However it’s made or in whatever manifestation – I’ll take it! Coffee is by far my beverage of choice.

What inspired me to extoll my adoration of the Coffea Arabica plant? Monday morning when I was sipping my coffee and wearily scrolling through my facebook feed after a week and half of holiday over indulgence I came across this clever “Literary Coffee” illustration. Each cup a graphic description of the author- Agatha Christie’s cup is stabbed with a knife, Kafka’s has a roach crawling out of it, devil horns emerge from Dante’s, Becket’s is upside down being the good Existentialist that he is. My favorite by fair is Hemingway’s – a tumbler of scotch on the rocks. And yes! You will see I had to erase the content of the Marchese de Sade’s coffee cup – we shall say no more about that.

I’ve had a loving relationship with coffee almost my whole life. From my summer family visits to Italy when my Nonna (grandmother) would make me a cappuccino heavy on the foamed milk. How I loved those thick ceramic cups full of billowing clouds of frothed milk. To college where I graduated to my beloved Bialetti espresso pot that got me though many an all-nighter. The only time I took a rest bit from caffeine intake was when I was pregnant with my first child. I limited myself to Ovaltine as hyper 1st time mothers do fearing that any enjoyable beverage to pass their lips will somehow impact the child’s development. By the time I was having my 2nd I realized that my mother fueled her pregnancy with me with espresso after espresso and I came out fine. Well, I am not that great at math but I refuse to blame that on second hand caffeine intake. I have now reached the enlightened plane of the Nespresso machine. Just by the push of a button I jettison hot water through lovely colored little tin capsules of espresso and top it with freshly foamed milk. My husband calls my Nespresso machine the gift that keeps on giving because he’s the one who sees the credit card bills after I order sleeve after sleeve of my gem colored coffee pods from of course their only manufacture – themselves. Well played Nespresso, well played! At work I’ve been known on occasion to buy a coffee from our Friends of the Library Keurig machine. It’s only a dollar, the money goes to the Friends and it helps me get through the afternoon so it’s a win win all around. And yes I did succumb to the seduction of Starbucks for a while but I will leave you with humorist Dave Barry’s thoughts on that subject, “It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.”