I did not grow up in a coffee drinking family. The only coffee in the house were a couple things of instant coffee stored in the pantry and forgotten about except on Thanksgiving day. On Thanksgiving, we got out all of my Mom’s nice china which included a set of coffee cups and saucers. Following the main meal, my Mom would set the kettle and offer up coffee: decaf, caffeinated, (we did at least have options) and tea.

At church, there was always a coffee hour but for me, my focus was the donuts and maybe I would grab milk or orange juice. So I did have an opportunity to try coffee but just wasn’t really interested.

Fast forward to college. For some coffee helps you wake up for that 7:30am lab or pull an all-nighter. My morning necessity was cereal, just ask my lab partner (I just about shutdown our lab computer once, sorry) I can’t recall why I decided to give coffee a try, but I do remember it was my junior or senior year. I picked up an iced mocha from the Purdue campus mini-mart one afternoon. I didn’t pour a glass till about 8pm and thoroughly enjoyed the flavor! It was great.

Being a newbie to the coffee scene, I wasn’t thinking of the caffeine effects. I was just trying it to see if I liked the taste with no intention of staying up late. I tried going to sleep at a normal time, but that didn’t really happen till about 4am, so yea caffeine really does keep you awake!

…caffeine really does keep you awake!

That night I learned not to have a cup of coffee so late in the evening and I maintained only iced coffee occasionally. That has been slowing changing over the last few years as Ben (hubby) has been converting me to a more regular coffee drinker. Considering he has about five different ways to brew coffee and keeps offering to have me sip new flavors.

So on a recent family vacation, I had a few cups of joe and was starting to work on my food photography. What food or drink do you regularly enjoy now that you didn’t grow up with? Let me know in the comments.

Sweetly,

Gwenlynn