morning coffee crisis

When I was little I used to watch my parents make coffee.  Right before dinner, after the table was set but before food was served, coffee became the priority.  I remember the daily ritual in great detail.  They would rinse out the pot and place a brand new white wavy coffee filter in the top of the coffee maker.  Then they opened the bottom cabinet and pulled out what I thought was an enormous brown tin of Yuban pre-ground coffee.  I loved how light the tin felt in spite of its large size, the tiny plastic scoop that came with it and the delicious aroma that met your nose the moment you inhaled.  Scoop and pour, scoop and pour until they had the perfect amount of coffee in the filter.  A flick of a switch and moments later the smell of coffee wafted through the entire house.  I memorized the measurements and when I was old enough making coffee became my pre-dinner task.  The entire process was fascinating and my parents' devotion to their daily cup made me envious. It must be delicious. It HAD TO BE delicious.  Sadly, I knew better.  I learned that lesson as a young child, long before I was in school.  I remember my mom letting me sip the dark chocolately brown liquid from her evening mug. Talk about disappointment. 

To me coffee ranked somewhere between cod liver oil and cup of mud.  Yuck.  Every few years I would ask my parents to try again.  Still yuck.  Always disappointment.  Finally I assumed that coffee was like marriage or buying a house, something you did as an adult and enjoyed it.  Years passed.  College came and went.  I watched my friends pull all nighters fueled on little more than coffee and M&Ms. I tinkered with all sorts of coffee concoctions but the result was always the same - YUCK.  So I stuck with soda and iced tea.  Then I entered corporate America and coffee was everywhere!  In the break room, the cafe, delivered to conference rooms in large carafes and personal mini brew stations set up in coworkers' cubes.  Meetings were conducted and business decisions made "over coffee".  I was old enough to know by now that I didn't like coffee and simply said 'no thank you' anytime I was offered a cup.  It seems silly to feel like an outsider because of a hot beverage but I did.  I was in my mid-twenties, a homeowner and gainfully employed but I still didn't feel like an adult.  I liked to blame it on my coffee aversion. 

Meanwhile, Starbucks was expanding at an exponential rate. In May of 2000, during the dot-com explosion, I began working at a startup company. In those days our employers felt it necessary to give us extremely flexible work hours and unlimited break time.   My friends would take a few minutes every morning and again in the afternoon to walk across the street to Starbucks and feed their caffeine addiction.  Occasionally I would join them and order an iced tea.  Then one day it happened.  I decided to be daring and order a cafe mocha with extra chocolate.  Not bad.  The door to the coffee world had opened.  It was several years and two kids later before my real love of coffee began but I will never forget that first mocha.  It was a weekday afternoon at the Starbucks on Northern and 19th Avenue.   

Today I have perfected my homemade hot mocha although I'm still working the kinks out of my iced version. I still visit Starbucks for their fabulous iced tea but if I'm in the mood for a mocha I'd rather stay home. I prefer to use a smooth mellow coffee like a breakfast blend (or if I'm feeling saucy I'll use an amaretto).  A pinch of confectioners’ sugar, a dash of skim milk and on special occasions I'll top it off with fresh whipped cream.  But the pinnacle of the entire mocha extravaganza, my secret 'yuck-suppressing-disappointing-taste-destroying' weapon is Trader Joe's sipping chocolate.  I've tried every brand of mocha powder and chocolate flavored coffee enhancer under the sun and TJ's wins hands down every time.  It's the perfect blend of chocolate without being overly sweet and I love it.  My day doesn't really start until I've had my TJ's chocolate cafe mocha.

There's only one problem.  Trader Joe's only sells their sipping chocolate from mid-October through New Year's.  My staple daily starter is a seasonal item!  This past year I decided to be better prepared. The year before I didn't realize my mistake until it was mid-January and every TJ's in a 50 miles radius was sold out of my beloved chocolate. So I started stocking up (or as my husband likes to call it, hoarding) on TJ’s sipping chocolate.  No biggie.  I decided to buy 2 or 3 tins during my weekly trip to TJ's.  I assumed that purchasing a few tins every week during the approximately 10 week holiday season would be enough to last me through an entire year.  Not wanting to take up space in the coffee nook with my numerous tins I found a perfect storage (aka hiding) place in the pantry.  We store our cereal boxes on one of the upper shelves but the boxes don’t reach all the way to the back. The gap between the boxes and the wall is just the right size for my precious sipping chocolate.  Every week I made my TJ’s shopping trip and stocked my pantry.  When the holiday season ended I was sitting pretty.  Until this morning.  When I opened my current tin and found it to be empty I went to the pantry to fetch a new tin.  I pulled back a box of cereal, nothing.  I pulled back a second box, nothing.  Frantically I began shoving boxes of cereal aside and there on the shelf I found one single tin.  ONE.  One tiny tin of sipping chocolate that will have to last me from now until just before Halloween.  2 or 3 tins a week? What was I thinking?  I should have purchased at least 4, maybe 5.  Then I started to think about Thanksgiving... how many mochas did I make for all of those people in my house (e.g., beloved family members and welcomed guests)?  Then I remembered the incident that occured just last week.  Kate was doing something that resulted in half a tin being spilled ... the mess was ridiculous and there was so much chocolate powder dust that we had to hose her off outside.  I wonder how many mochas I rinsed off my patio that afternoon. OY!  I foresee many looong mornings in my future.  So if you call me before 10 am and I don't answer you'll have to forgive me, I'm probably just moving a little slowly.  Here’s a snapshot of my precious sipping chocolate.

Comments

[Claire]

I buy tins of this for my mother-in-law every year at Christmas!! I'm always sad when I can't find it when the holidays are done. She uses hers for hot chocolate and rations it out by mixing it with other hot chocolates so it lasts longer. :)

[Michele]

I'm glad I'm not the only one hording this stuff. Ghirardelli has one dark chocolate powder that works pretty well as an off season substitute but they have several that look very similar so you have to be careful when buying it. I tried mixing their sweetened coco powder into my mochas but it was awful. I'm running dangerously low so when I buy my next Ghirardelli batch I'll let you know specifically which one is the TJ's substitute.

[Kim]

I'm not a big coffee fan either I will have to try this!