Drink Charitably!

For a lot of  us in the wine business (and I assume other businesses), our lives revolve around beverages.  Usually this is coffee in the morning, water during the day, and wine at night.  Some people would actually say this is an addiction.  I’m here to say that for me, at least the coffee part, clearly is an addiction.

And I’m good with that.

I have been drinking coffee since I was 17 years old.  That means I’ve been drinking coffee longer than I’ve been drinking wine…or any other alcohol for that matter.  And it all started in the early 70’s — when I was in high school working for Pier 1 Imports.  Back then, Pier 1 was a real hippie place — lots of indian bedspreads, incense and other random stuff.  But it was also the only place with fresh brewed whole bean coffee.  My parents were coffee drinkers — percolator stuff — Yuban or Folgers or something from a can.  I loved the smell of coffee — to this day it is like smelling comfort food to me.  But when I started drinking it — I hated it — for about a cup or so.  After that – I was hooked. 

And one day, I think in the late 70’s, maybe early 80’s, while visiting friends going to school at Berkeley, I discovered Peet’s.  Since then, nothing has been the same.  I fell in love with Major Dickason’s blend.  To this day, it is my preferred blend and what I grind and drink every day before & on my way to work.  And a couple of years ago, a gift from the heaven’s appeared in Napa — our own Peet’s. 

Coffee, by the way, is so much like wine.  It is appellation specific.  It is vintage based (and could be vintage specific, I suppose).  And the brewing, like winemaking, can either bring out the best in a bean (substitute grape here) or ruin it. 

I became such a bean-head in college that I found a local roaster who supplied green beans (coffee beans don’t spoil until they are roasted) and roasted my own beans on cookie sheets in the oven.  Come to think of it, I was also making my own wine, brewing my own beer, and raising my own veggies.  Some things never change!

Our Peet’s is also a bit of a social scene – I run into everyone there.   And like wine, I think of it as my little affordable luxury.  We’re not taking a trip to Hawaii this year.  We’re not buying a new car.  We’re not remodeling the house.  But I am drinking wine…and I am drinking Peet’s.  These are my affordable luxuries — the things I simply will not give up.

Do you have an affordable addiction…er…luxury you won’t give up?  Are you a coffee person…or a tea person?  They say it takes a lot of beer to make good wine.  I disagree.  I think it takes a lot of good coffee to make great wine!