Skipping Dessert … and taking the stairs

My thoughts on coffee, that is.

A little background:  My Lovely Wife bought me the most amazing Christmas present, one of those cool Keurig single-cup coffee makers.  I’ve been drinking about fifty percent more coffee every morning since the 26th.  And occasionally a cup at night, which I never did at home before because making a whole pot for just one cup seemed kind of ridiculous.

I had been on the fence about these machines.  I knew the quality of the coffee was just fine, and the opportunity to brew small batches quickly was tempting.  But I’ve long thought the best thing about coffee wasn’t the coffee itself, or even all the many health benefits I’ve convinced myself a cup of joe conveys (see below), but rather the ritual of the coffee.

For years now I’ve prepared the coffee before bed so we woke to the smell of brewing coffee.  The evening was not complete until the grounds and the water were in the Mr. Coffee and the green light was on, promising a happy morning.  Every morning I finished the ritual with some half-and-half and a warm-up about halfway through cup number one.

I need the grounding of consistent morning ritual, and the Sprightly Daughters provide enough morning chaos to make it all the more important.

You’ll be happy to know it’s really no big deal.  I feel slightly at loose ends right before bed, but the Keurig has provided its own morning rubrics.  Turns out I’m plenty adaptable, which is good to know.

Go get yourself a Keurig at your first opportunity, or get a kick-ass spouse who will get one for you when you least expect it.

As far as the many health benefits of the coffee itself, I’ll let Dr. Peter Martin, director of the Institute for Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University (yes, there’s such a thing, why do you ask?) explain:  “What I tell patients is, if you like coffee, go ahead and drink as much as you want and can … If you are having trouble sleeping, cut back on your last cup of the day.  If you drink that much, it’s not going to do you any harm, and it might actually help you. A lot.”

Go read all about it in this nice long article from The Atlantic.  Now, the whole thing kind of comes full-circle, because my Lovely Wife is a Vanderbilt alumna.  She swears she knew nothing about the Institute for Coffee Studies, but I am not sure I believe her.

If that article was too much, as usual, the Huffington Post has a condensed version in the form of a handy slide show here.  All the normal stuff:  Fights off Alzheimer’s, lowers prostate cancer risk, wards off basel cell carcinoma, yada yada yada.  What?  No, I’m not making that up.  Go read the article.

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As always, thanks for reading.  Check back in on Friday for the weigh-in and in the meantime, tell a friend!