Life without coffee
Whomp!
Whomp! Whomp! We were in Haiti and the pounding woke us about 4 am. Roasted
coffee beans were being crushed in a large wooden mortar made out of part of a
tree trunk. The long blunt-ended pestle was dropped onto the beans over and
over. Any chance for sleep was over as we listened to the heavy wooden pestle
pulverize coffee beans. Someone made a
fire outside the small 4 room house and had hot coffee ready for us. They
served it in white enamel cups with brown raw sugar and white bread. That was
our breakfast. I was 54 years old and I did not drink coffee. Until
then.
That
morning I was with a medical team who were getting ready to see @ 200 patients
close to a river south of Leogane. The five of us had spent the night in the
village, all in one room, and had done more talking and laughing than sleeping
the night before. The morning air was nippy and we were barely awake. It was coffee
or nothing. I chose the hot coffee.
All
my life I thought coffee smelled good but tasted bad. My mom drank coffee now
and then but it was instant ground up stuff she kept in the freezer and it
tasted terrible. Everywhere else I tried coffee it was so bitter. I certainly
saw no reason to ever pay good money for it! So all through the years I worked
nights as a nurse or midwife I drank tea for my caffeine- without any milk or
sugar - and herbal teas when I did not want the caffeine.
When
I started going to Haiti a couple of times a year, I began drinking coffee for
the cultural experience and out of necessity.. Haitian coffee is not
bitter. It’s strong and takes a lot of sugar but on a chilly morning when
you are half awake it hits the spot. When I returned home I experimented with
coffee at work where I could get free coffee in the break room or the hospital
cafeteria. I discovered that it was good if I added enough cream and sugar but
especially good if it was half coffee and half hot chocolate. That blend gave
me a real zing of energy.
I
have learned that if you pay a bit more you can have coffee that is not bitter.
For years now I have rarely had a morning without coffee. Coffee lovers have
rituals around their morning coffee. Sitting and looking out a window,
meditation, reading the paper – comfortable activities around the coffee
drinking. Steve is a bit of a coffee snob and likes to grind the beans fresh
each morning. He frequently will bring me my cup with cream and honey while I
am still in bed. Yum. It is a lovely way to start the day.
Morning view in Alabama includes watching the neighbors walk their dogs. |
Recently we have made some changes to our
coffee routine. It started a couple of months ago when I was starting to have
long runs of an irregular heartbeat. I
was having PVCs, premature ventricular contractions. PVCs are usually benign, but I was having
them for hours. We decided I had to get
checked by a cardiologist.
Waterfront property for sale that I pass on my 4 mile walks. |
While
we were in Florida, I had an EKG, which showed 4 out of 10 heartbeats were
PVC’s. The cardiologist interpreted a
stress test as “not as normal as I would like it to be.” I was prescribed metoprolol and told to
follow up but we left Florida before I could do so. We are now in Alabama and I am in the middle
of further investigation. My echocardiogram was normal and a CT
angiogram will be done in 2 weeks.
The
good news is that the medicine has helped the PVC’s to go from all day to
several minutes once or twice a day and the chest pain is gone. The bad news is
that I found caffeine definitely made them worse. For a while, Steve stopped
making me coffee. Then we got some decaf, which I have not minded. Two kinds of
coffee meant brewing two pots. Sometimes he had decaf also. Sometimes I just
had herbal tea.
Then
we thought about how much room the coffee maker takes on our small kitchen
counter in the RV. One square foot isn’t
much space in your kitchen, but it is a lot in ours. We decided to banish the coffee maker to a
storage bay and now use a “pour-over” coffee brewer. It takes almost no space and makes better
coffee. The water gets heated to exactly
200 degrees then is slowly poured over the grounds sitting in a stainless-steel
filter. More precise temperature control
brews a better cup.
Pour-over coffee |
The
best coffee in the world is made in Cabestor, Haiti by Mary Louise. She boils a
mixture of dried spices with the coffee.
I’ve examined the small packs these spices come in and I believe they
are clove, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom.
But I can’t replicate the flavor and it makes me sad to think I may
never have this coffee again.
The town center of Cabestor |
As a
result of being in one spot for all of January and February we have been able
to do some things we did not do last year. We go to a gym 3-4 times a week,
sleep even later than ever, and I got out the sewing machine to finish a quilt
my mom had started about 6 years ago. I found a quaint quilt shop owned by a
woman about my age who lost both her adult children to cancer. She will have it
quilted- by long arm machine- by the end of this month.
I have been mostly healthy all my life but the last few months has made me think a lot about the end of my life getting closer than ever. The plans we have made to be with children and grandchildren during this year become even more treasured. The beauty of our surroundings has become more vivid. The love Steve surrounds me with brings more joy and gratitude. I say, "So what" about no more coffee. I have “miles to go before I sleep”.
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