Its Coffee Time !!!

Blog Marathon Post 6

Its drizzling outside; I can see the raindrops slowly hitting the window panes and flowing down. They form patterns on the pane, try to do a small dance before flowing in unison to the ground. Suddenly, I feel the urge to have a coffee. I am surprised at myself because I had left the habit of having coffee or tea for quite sometime. Nowadays the only time I drink I either coffee/tea is when I visit somebody's house and they offer me a cup of tea/coffee. I play with idea for sometime and the craving takes over me. I pick up a few notes and head over to the nearby barista. On reaching barista, I casually remark to the boy at the counter. "One Cafe Mocha, please. Take-away". Wasn't mocha always my favourite? In my coffee drinking days, I could count in my fingers the occassions when I had ordered something else. He nods, I pay him and he sets about making my coffee. With amazing dexterity, he juggles the cup, coffee bean powder, the bottle of chocolate sauce, the steamer and milk bottle and viola, the mocha is ready. I pick up the coffee and head back to my desk.



Back at my desk, the rich aroma of the coffee fills my nostrils, arousing my senses instantly. I take one sip and the rich nutty flavour fills my mouth, lifting my spirits. The caffeine has its own way of spelling a cast on our body with its magic. Holding the coffee cup, gazing into the rain outside, I wonder how my relationship with coffee have evolved over these years.

While I was staying with my parents, well after my bournvita-drinking ages, I used to have three cups of coffee daily. A black coffee early in the morning, one filter coffee with breakfast and another with snacks in the evening. Those times, my mom brewed the excellent filter coffee, added a drop of her love and the end product was amazing. back then, I was entirely a coffee person. I refused to drink tea and when I went visiting my relatives, my aunts had to prepare coffee especially for me. I never took tea from restaurants or friends' place or my own home. It was always coffee for me. I was in love with the beverage. It acted as a mood lifter, energy booster and a tasty beverage - a very faithful companion for all the times.

Once I moved out of my home, the luxury of someone brewing a cup of coffee was over. Inaccessibility to a well-equipped kitchen, prevented me from brewing a coffee for myself. So my coffee drinking pattern changed from regular coffees to once in a while coffee with friends. Still, CCD stayed the favourite hang out place with friends and hence coffee drinking was confined to weekends. This continued for the next two years when I was in Bangalore.

During my MBA days, our mess served regular tea and by that time I had gone from a tea-hater to I-am-ok-with-drinking-tea person. I used to take tea once in a while and my dear friend M was a huge tea-lover. Whenever I used to go out with her, we always drank tea. Coffee drinking was a rarity those days.

Once the MBA was over and I came to Hyderabad, I stopped drinking tea or coffee for purely health reasons. Tea or Coffee was limited to very very rare occassions like meeting up with a friend in a coffee shop or while visiting my parents back home. However, over these years, two things remained constant in my life: First, a black coffee, early morning from my mom is still one of the best things in my life. Second, 'Never ever in my life can I take coffee to stay awake for an exam. I can take coffee and stay awake and have fun, but for studying an exam, a coffee never helps' :|

As you can see, my relationship with coffee has evolved over a period of time. I went from an ardent coffee lover to occasional coffee drinker to a very rare coffee taker. Why am I reminded of all of these today? Because even today, when a rainy day comes, it becomes all cozy and I need someone of lift my spirits, I still go back to my age old friend. I still go back to your nuttiness, your flavour, your aroma and you my friend, never disappoints me. You do your duty perfectly, no matter how many years I have neglected you, no matter how disappointed you were when I chose other beverages over you. We may have many more rocky patches to tread on, but we will stick together for many more years to come.

Cheers to a cup of coffee :) So, what is your coffee drinking experience?