"A spoonful of sugar..."

I am not a coffee addict. I am a Cafe Moka coffee addict. There is a difference--because not all coffees are created equal.

I like my coffee black and my espresso slightly sweet, just enough to take the edge off the smokiness. One of my favorite drinks is a small cafe caribbean latte with one packet of raw sugar instead of the usual three. The Sugar in the Raw adds just a hint of caramel-ly sweetness and lets the espresso flavors shine. It's WONDERFUL!

I love the days when I work at Cafe Moka because not only do I get to make fabulous coffee drinks and attempt to make latte art, but I get two drinks during my shift.

So yummy!

(btw I did NOT make the gorgeous rosetta in the pic above)

Currently I don't work on Wednesdays because I have three classes, so that means no coffee. By four in the afternoon I had a horrible headache, so I did what desperate, broke, baristas might possibly do: I made myself a cup of "crap coffee." (That's snobbish barista code for store-bought coffee. Yes, I'm afraid I am officially a coffee snob.)

The only coffee Nicole and I have in our room is leftover from catering a film shoot last fall. Yep, that's right, from fall 2010. The plastic container has been sitting on our counter for months. Eewww.

Store-bought coffee has almost twice the caffeine of high-end coffee because it is made of cheap robusta beans versus arabica beans. Read: I believe it's proper use is medicinal. SO...in the spirit of keeping myself awake and simultaneously destroying my headache, I prepared to force myself to gulp down two whole cups.

But this wasn't just black coffee...this was black crap coffee. Could I do it??? Could I get two cups down without destroying my tastebuds?

Creamer and sugar to the rescue! There's a reason the majority of the nation can't drink their coffee black. Like Mary Poppins said, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." It worked and my headache is fading at this very moment. Now I have a long night of Spanish ahead of me as I prepare for my presentation tomorrow. Eewww.