On the street

Brewed Awakening's Coffeehouse

I'm a recovering caffeine addict. Well, I don't know that that's even an entirely fair statement. Can you be recovering if you still drink caffeine? I don't know. But, I do know that I used to drink a lot more caffeine than I do now. But, even after cutting back, I can't cut myself off cold turkey. I still need that cup of coffee in the morning. If I skip it, sometime around noon a nagging headache reminds me that I need a fix.

Still, I'm better than I was. Growing up my family was never big soda drinkers and my dad drank coffee so I always loved the smell but rarely indulged. Then in high school my friends and I started hanging out in coffee shops. That was how it began, a latte here and mocha there. On the west coast, where I grew up, there's a coffee shop or coffee "wagon" on every corner. When I came to school in Iowa coffee was harder to come by, so I traded it in for soda, Coke to be exact. And, not the diet kind either. My freshman year I drank the hard stuff, straight coca cola. When I switched to diet soda my consumption increased because I knew there weren't any calories to worry about. At my most addictive, I was drinking a couple 32 ounce cups of Diet Coke a day. Whether or not that's a lot by other people's standards, I don't know. But, I was often jittery from the caffeine.

So, I started cutting back. And now I'm down to a couple cups of coffee in the morning and on a bad day I'll have a soda with lunch. Who knows whether I've improved my health or not. I know my mom thinks I have. She likes to send me e-mails about how Diet Coke is eating away at my stomach. But, trading water for Diet Coke can't be a bad move and it's easier to type when my hands aren't jittery across the keyboard.

Even as I write this though, I have to admit that a 16 oz. sugar free vanilla skim latte is still a little piece of heaven for me. It's my splurge when I'm having a bad morning or a particularly dreary day. I don't think it's so much about the caffeine as it is about the comfort factor of my favorite drink.

I think a lot of people I talked to at Brewed Awakening's would agree. Some of the people hanging out at the coffee shop weren't even drinking coffee. Instead they were sipping tea or a smoothie. So much about coffee and coffee shops has nothing to do with the drink itself, it's the atmosphere, the comfy corners to chit chat, the whir of the grinder and the wonderful aromas.

Next week a new face will be joining us. Molly Rossiter is taking over for Nicole Riehl. Nicole got a new job at the University of Iowa. She's going to be covering the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for University News Services.

So, say hi to Molly if you see her at the candy store downtown asking people about the sweetest Valentine's Day gift they ever got.

 

 

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