Coffee: This Amazing Bean

I could write a lot about coffee. I could tell you how I used to drink it with lots of milk and two tablespoons of sugar and called it coffee, or how I have had the same coffee to drink over a week after I made it, after leaving it in the fridge of course, and had ice coffee with A LOT of ICE, A LOT!!!

Most recently I got around to opening some very tasty vanilla syrup that a friend gave me some time ago. I made one awesome sugar-free latte. Anyway, lots of different thoughts went through my mind. I wondered just what do a few of my friends think about this amazing bean? So thanks to those that responded to my questions. And of course I can never get right to the point!

Recently I went camping, of course in the rain, which I had no problem with at all. I found that I love the dark cloudy days a lot when I am out camping or even at the lake. I am not probably the person you would want around on a very long weekend. I would be wanting a little rain. 

Anyway, on this last camping trip, I forgot to bring some of my daily pills I take. So off to Park Rapids to get them. Of course I could not just walk in and get them. They had to be ordered, and of course there would be THAT wait to get them. What do you do when you have an hour to kill?

Well, personally, I like to go eat. Thing was, though, I had already eaten (something that would not usually matter), so the next best thing this early in the morning was COFFEE! 

It just so happened that Mike and I had just been up in this area a week earlier with our friends Kate and Will: our now-annual trip to walk, ride bike and of course reward ourselves with, what else, food. Anyway I have to tell you that on that weekend it was also raining. So Mike and Will decided to do what any normal person who is crazy about rainy weather sports does, go golf, I don’t get it.

Kate and I decided not to walk but to go into Park Rapids and get coffee and then go drink wine, wine that Kate’s good friend had so kindly told us where to find at her lake cabin. Thank you Sandra.

Okay, back to coffee. The place we ended up going was Bella Caffe. It is very cute and on that date, not so busy.  Once we got there I decided I was good without the coffee.

But the weekend Mike and I went, I had my normal Latte with sugar-free caramel, always heated to 190 degrees. It is a MUST in my world to have it that hot! Mike had his regular “strongest of the day” cup. While we waited for my pills to be made, I started looking around and paying a little more attention to this cute place.

I realized that years ago I actually knew the owner. I found that it was not at all just about coffee. However, that is what got me in the door. Isn’t it that way now in all the coffee places? They are all very cute and there is all this temptation around you to pair that coffee, tea or smoothie up with something.

So again I had already eaten and could only look at what I might have had. What I quickly realized was that there was a theme going on here: Italian! They had items like La Venezia sandwiches and Crostini salads. There were even items like antipasto trays, bread and dipping oil, and of course wine available. So why exactly was I having coffee?

Neither of the ladies working that day were the owners, but absolutely you could tell they loved what they were doing. They told me that Thom Peterson was the owner and that he also ran another more traditional lunch place that was connected to the coffee shop. Well, I saw that menu too, but this one really interested me because again I came in for COFFEE.

I highly recommend it if you are in Park Rapids. Oh, remember about my 190 degree temp? Well when we got in the car and settled in, I took a sip of mine. I quickly realized that not only had they not heated it up to 190 but I had not any caramel either.

So out of the car and back in I go. I asked if they would add more caramel. I said I would pay extra. They were fine with just adding it. They were surprised that I could not taste the caramel. Anyway I went back to the car and as I got in, Mike was taking a sip of his coffee. He slowly looked at me and without a word, I knew what his look meant. I had picked up Mike’s coffee, regular and black.

He looked at me and said, “Well, I was wondering why I almost scalded my mouth.” We had a good laugh. 

We are really lucky here in Fargo/Moorhead to have such a variety of coffee places to go to and pick from. Now, I am not trying to put down chains, but I am very happy to see that the local coffee places are doing well and are in the downtown area. There again, it is not about just the coffee. You can walk into Atomic Coffee, Moxie Java, Babbs, and see all these wonderful items you can munch on with that coffee. Or into Josie’s Corner for food and get that coffee you are yearning for.

I even found a site online for “coffee geeks.” UGH!! According to some of the coffee facts I found on line, “Coffee is an important export commodity. In 2004, coffee was the top agricultural export for 12 countries and in 2005, it was the world’s seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value.”
So anyway, I thought it would be fun to see what other people thought about their coffee. SO here are a few that responded to my questions. Again, thanks for taking the time.

Barrie M, Moorhead: My favorite thing about drinking coffee is the flavor and aroma. If I did not have coffee every day, I would probably switch to tea. If I could compare coffee to the best of something else, no no, there is nothing that compares with coffee.

Barb L, Fargo: My favorite thing about drinking coffee is grinding the beans. If I did not have coffee twice a week I would miss it. On weekend mornings, I like to make myself a cup of cappuccino. When we run out of milk and I can’t make it, I miss that. Good coffee is like good chocolate: dark, rich and worth every bite. I liked the coffee they served in Cairo, in teeny little cups with a large glass of water. You need the water to chase it down because it is so strong and thick. Yummy! But I’ll skip any bad (aka weak) coffee…blech!
Kay L, Minneapolis: My favorite thing about drinking coffee is the creamer. If I did not have coffee seven times a week, I would go back to being 10 years old. If I could compare coffee to the best of something, it would be similar to smoking a cigarette after sex.

Kate K, Fargo: My favorite thing about drinking coffee is the smell. I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee, and it gives me a bit of energy. If I did not have coffee every day, I would get an extreme headache. I am addicted to coffee. I went off it completely a couple years ago and had an intense headache and some nausea for about three days. Yikes! I like my coffee really hot and I like it strong too—none of this lukewarm brown water stuff. If I could compare coffee to the best of something it would be a really good book.

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