CULTURE SHOCK

Ode to Coffee

My first experience with coffee was when I was a toddler and pulled a placemat off a kitchen table that held a steaming cup on it. Needless to say, my poor Granny, Syble Pemberton Johnston, was scarred for life, and I have a pretty big scar on my left arm that you can only see when I get really tan in the summertime. I bet Dr. Eric Tyler remembers the incident well.

Granny kept me during the day while my parents worked, and I guess when your best friend is 50-something, you start acting like a 50-something. I’m not sure I was ever really a child.

About 3 p.m. every day, she made a pot of afternoon coffee. That is the sinking spell time in which most of us need a little refuel. Usually, retired lady friends dropped by, and eventually my mother, and they were all sure to get a cup.

Not to be left out, I too, got my own cup of milk with sugar and a splash of black coffee.

I would say, “Granny, it is time for our coff.”

As much as I write about food, I can wax poetic about coffee. I am not a coffee snob. I drink it black. I like it on cold winter mornings and sitting outside in 90-degree July heat. I’ll drink Scooters and Starbucks, but I’m equally happy with gas station quality brew from Mapco.

I have never really understood buying the $6 latte.

I just need the caffeine to hit. My impatience often renders a burned mouth, as does the bumpy ride from my street to state Route 280. Just last

week, I was trying to get out the door with my first cup of the day. Mistake No. 1 was not getting up early, and I sat the cup on the console of my Jeep. I hopped in, and my elbow slammed that baby all the way to the back seat. Talk about upset. The most exotic coffee I have experienced was Kopi Luwak coffee in Bali. Essentially, Culture Shock coffee cherries are eatenby the Asian Pal Civet (picture a weasel) and fermented in the digestion process; then, pooped out. It’s not glamorous and is a form of processing more so than a type of coffee. I will report that it tasted great. I tour many very nice houses in my line of work, and I always pause and admire the “Fancy Nancy” espresso machines. I imagine myself in luxurious pajamas preparing myself a cup that would surely make me more productive and kick start Lacey Howell better days. I then remember I am a hot mess in the morning; I don’t buy expensive pajamas, and in my caffeine-deprived early morning state, I would not be able to work such a machine. And yet, it would probably work out at my house because John would be the first one there in the morning to make my cup, and I would not be able to tear up the espresso machine. ~ Lacey Howell is a recovering English major from Auburn who now lives on Lake Martin, sells real estate, rides horses and loves good wine. Follow her on Instagram@LaceyHowell and on her Facebook page.

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