bad coffee: the duo gets duped
Posted by Meg
Sarah and I are in the midst of a shared experience right now, and let us tell you, it’s not a good one. This morning’s coffee run has been taking a slow turn for the worse since about 10am, but we think it’s reached the pinnacle of badness now.
We might be foodies, but we’re not food snobs. We’ll eat and drink much anything you put in front of us. Case in point: our morning coffee doesn’t come from Starbucks, Cosi, wherever, it usually comes from the cafe at our place of employ. It’s early, we’re lazy, we’re grouchy, and the coffee is cheap. Whatever. Ordinarily the coffee is fine. We’ve had better, but we’ve definitely had worse too. The point is, it’s easy to get to, and always available.
I suppose we should have been wary this morning when the coffee was neither easy to get to nor available. There was an unexpected crowd in the cafe, and as a result, a new pot needed to be brewed. What happened? Well, we’re not quite certain, but it seems that the machine was simply turned on again to re-steep the existing grounds into a pot with the last lingering memories of the coffee of 7am. Unknowingly, we filled our mugs, did our surprisingly well choreographed sharing of the milk and singular coffee stirrer dance, and moved along.
The first sips were harsh. There was uncontrollable face squenching, sputtering, and dry coughing, maybe even a heave. By the time we reached the elevators from the cafe, it was clear that we were victims of bad coffee. But what to do? There wasn’t any other coffee to be had. We decided to suck it up (literally) and carry on.
It’s now noon, and we’re sharing symptoms of percolation poisoning. Headache across the eyebrows, fullness behind the ears, just under the lobes, slightly blurred vision thanks to squinting to avoid the eyebrow headache. It’s like the hangover you get when you’re on your second or third glass of really harsh, really cheap, really bad red wine–the only hangover either of us have ever had while we were still drinking.
Lesson learned: none, really. Mornings are still and will always be early, lazy and grouchy. It’s harsh, but it’s a price we’re willing to pay. In the meantime, however: ow.