I've been struggling with my thoughts on this subject for quite some time. I went to Arizona and experienced something that I have not dealt with in many years and came back an (unintentionally) changed man. It's hard for me to express my true thoughts because it's something I've yet to deal with in my heretofore innocent lifetime. When a man experiences something for the first time: a longing and then an absence and then a renewed experience with object of said longing; it can be tough to talk about it to other people. I'm going to try though as part of my renewed desire to face my fears and expound on my experiences.
I didn't drink coffee for almost a month. I know, I know...not what you expected to hear. That being said, it's what you needed to hear. Now, upon hearing that, you may think it implies that I'm a habitual coffee drinker. That is certainly not the case. I did drink coffee several times a week, however. Sometimes I made my own and sometimes (most of the time, actually) I purchased coffee from the esteemed beanery of Dunkin Donuts. Standard issue is medium coffee with cream and sugar. Now that is delicious.
Fast forward (or rewind I guess) to February. I fly to Tucson and am no longer in close contact with my beloved Dunkin Donuts!! Ahhh the horror. I am, however, with someone that drinks coffee every single morning. She even grinds it up and drinks it black! I think we all can guess who is the pants-wearer in this relationship. Pathetic on my part. :(
She always offered to make enough for me but I always declined saying that I didn't have any half and half. Fast forward a little bit more and I'm with this guy who abhors coffee and says that - despite never drinking it - he believes it tastes like burnt ass. He prefers his caffeine intake to be through the tea medium. And by tea, I mean a lot of tea. He'd usually drink 3-4 cups by the time I woke up and then he'd be off to work. He suggested I give it a try, which I did, and lo and behold I actually really liked it! Tea is a much more subtle drink than coffee. Coffee kind of says "Hey you! Wake the F*** up!" While tea, in a delicate English accent, says "The hour of awakening is upon us...please rise at your leisure whilst I prepare thine shower." Or something like that. I definitely dug it.
So for almost a month I had practically zero coffee. My taste buds had forgotten the rich and creamy dunkin donuts delicious dreamy delectable drink (boom goes the dynamite with alliteration) and I came home a new man. (Boy is more accurate, I am not a man).
I knew I had to get my hands on some medium with cream and sugar so my first morning back I head into my favorite location and grab my standard only to take my first sip in over three weeks and my first thought was "Wow, that's pretty gross." I pushed it aside as a fluke and the next morning decided to give it another shot; same thing. It tasted terrible! What. the. heck. My favorite drink was now no longer acceptable in my mouth. On the third day I noticed that it was a little better. I was purchasing from the same store so I assumed that the quality and overall flavor profile of the coffee was remaining the same, but who really knows.
FINALLY after about a week Dunkin Donuts coffee has returned to its delicious state. I am a firm believer that coffee is an acquired, addictive taste and my N=1 experiences verifies that to be true. That is all.
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