How to Drink Coffee

This is a post about how to successfully move beyond "1 shot, 7 pumps of vanilla venti latte with whip", or even a far simpler coffee sin: cream in your coffee. Its time for an American coffee resurgence: straight black coffee. A warning: it may actually be a useless pursuit learning to appreciate coffee if you aren't drinking good coffee. Find a local roaster and support them. Don't settle for the convenience of Starbucks. Now, how to drink coffee:

1. Find good coffee. Find a coffee roaster who lives/breathes coffee. Yes, there IS a huge difference in coffees. You will taste it when you find it. Even though specialty coffee is in its infancy and is somewhat rare, you can still find purveyors in nearly every major city. Don't know where to go? Check out the google map to the right, where I've bookmarked some trustable shops around the nation, or order beans online from www.gocoffeego.com

1. Black. Seems like a no-brainer, but you wouldn't believe how many people still haven't tried their coffee black since adolescence. Bad habits are hard to break, but with great coffee, drinking it black will pay off. Coffees have certain flavors and nuances that naturally occur and are different from farm to farm, and varietal to varietal. One drop of cream in coffee will mute a large percentage of those nuances. You can do this! Forego the cream...undergo a revolution!

2. Without Sugar. Sugar is largely every American's biggest addiction, and is one of the most destructive, disease-causing foods on earth. Most people who add a packet of sugar this year, will most likely have stepped up the dosage next year. Break the habit, and take steps toward a sugar-free lifestyle. Because, after all, coffee itself is a healthy drink when consumed in moderation.

3. In Ceramic. When you put coffee in a paper cup, even one with an interior plastic lining, it robs the coffee of its natural taste, and replaces it with a cardboard-like taste. Not pleasing. Drink coffee in "for-here" ceramic cups, and taste more nuances, or if you have to take it to go, remove the lid to drink it. Most of our taste buds actually come from the nose. If you have a lid on the coffee, you won't smell it, and therefore won't taste all it has to offer. Never ever drink espresso, macchiatos, or cappuccinos in paper. There are too many subtleties there that will get muted in paper. Also, if you put a lid on a cappuccino in a paper cup, the foam won't come through the tic-tac sized hole in your lid. Be smart about this.

4. With Friends. Since you now are drinking black coffee in a ceramic mug, you must stick around for 15-20 minutes and drink it. Slow down your life a little and have a conversation with a friend. You aren't a machine. You weren't made for what you can produce. Take a break, enjoy the day, live longer.

5. Drink less, more often. A barista from Phoenix told me this principle, and I think its amazing. You don't need 20 ounces of coffee per serving. Actually, any more caffeine than is in a 12oz cup of coffee, or two shots of espresso, in a one hour period, is only counter-productive for the brain and leads to caffeine addiction and/or health problems. If you drink 30 ounces of coffee (or more) in a day (which I don't recommend), drink smaller cups (like 8-10oz), which will always help you greater appreciate what you are drinking. I never drink more than an 8oz coffee at a time, and that alone has revolutionized my coffee drinking.