So there’s a new study that suggests coffee can help you live longer, which is really good news to me because I start each morning with a cup of coffee. Or rather I start each morning by waking up, taking the dogs out, feeding them, getting them settled, and then I sit down and have some coffee and while I drink regular it might just as well be because there’s no way I’m going back to sleep after all that.
Also I have to get to work, but I take time to stop and enjoy my coffee. I like it cold, which most people I knew found weird before coffee shops started popping up everywhere and offering iced coffee or those elaborate beverages that are basically milkshakes with a little coffee in them, but that’s another story. I also my own coffee at home the night before and put it in the fridge, and when I learned Victor Hugo did the same thing I could say, hah! Take that people who thought I was weird for drinking cold coffee. The guy who wrote the book that musical you claim to like is based on drank his coffee cold too!
I don’t know if it adds to the health benefits but I’ve never been a fan of getting coffee on the go. What I mean is I don’t mind going somewhere to get coffee—I love coffee shops—but I don’t like to drink and drive, even if I’m not the one driving. I want to be able to sit and enjoy it. Even when I rode the bus to work I wouldn’t take coffee with me. Even when the driver would stop somewhere and get coffee—there used to be a Shoney’s on my route where drivers would usually stop and take a break for about fifteen minutes, although not getting coffee there was, for me, more a matter of pragmatism than a concern about savoring my coffee. Since it was close to the start of the route I knew it would be a long time before, well, I’d be able to stop, and another reason for not getting coffee on the go is it goes right through me.
After I’d get off the bus, though, I’d pass by a donut shop on the way to the building where I work, and I’d have no problem stopping to get a coffee there and carrying it to my office where I could sit and enjoy it. And one of the advantages of iced coffee is I never have to worry about it getting cold.
I’m not allowed caffeinated anything, so recently I’ve started drinking de-caf on Sunday mornings – on ice. Not a fan of burning my lips or tongue, and what’s the point of heating it up and then letting it cool off before you can drink it. Just stick some ice in it to start.
That’s what got me started drinking iced coffee–I wasn’t a fan of burning my tongue, and after I’d had some scalding cider at a party I was pretty much put off hot beverages for life. Also I was put onto the idea of iced coffee by William Shatner in the Twilight Zone episode “Nick Of Time”.
Now I know, Chris. And you make me ponder. Why do I insist on my coffee hot but my tea cold? When I was growing up my mother used to be a hot tea drinker and indeed she would slip me a cup before school in the winter … but now, iced tea at other times of the day is my thing, hot coffee until noon, yes, preferably where I can sit and think about things as I sip.
Mark, that’s a very interesting question, and while I have no easy answer it does make me wonder if I’m just being too simple (one might even say lazy) for taking both my coffee and tea cold, except in the winter, when my main beverage is hot chocolate. Of course right now it seems too hot for anything hot.
That study is good news for me, Chris, because my husband Michael drinks lots of coffee. I don’t drink any coffee, however, so I’ll use other ways to live longer, including reading your blog.
ANN J KOPLOW recently posted…Day 3544: Why the hell?
I’m very glad to hear about Michael’s coffee habit and I know from regularly reading your blog that you have many healthy habits of your own which more than make up for not drinking coffee.