Coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia, introduced to Vienna via retreating Turkish armies, and institutionalized in the US by a mermaid from Seattle. We describe it with terms like rich, robust, aromatic, and instant. The smell of the grounds in the can is comforting. The swirling loops and color changes caused by adding cream are transfixing.
My first coffee experiments were with my mother’s jar of instant crystals. As a teenager I drank it at a coffeehouse in Cleveland Heights. In Boston I had a tall cup every morning from a chain near my office, in New York I bought it from a man in a trailer outside Penn Station, and in France I drank it in smoke filled cafes. My first cup back in the States this summer was purchased at a gas station outside Bucyrus. Burning my tongue with the first sip, then running to the bathroom 30 minutes after finishing the cup, I love coffee.
And so, this FlashQuiz asks: What is your relationship with coffee? How old were you when you had your first cup? Is it a part of your daily life? What do you add to it? Where do you drink it?
All responses will be treated with confidentiality.
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