Colin didn’t like coffee. He liked the idea of coffee quite a lot–a warm drink that gave you energy and had been for centuries associated with sophisticates and intellectuals. But coffee itself tasted to him like caffeinated stomach bile.
John Green in An Abundance of Katherines. p. 11
I also like the rest of the paragraph, from which I lifted the quote. It conveys the tone of the protagonist, Colin, who has just broken up with his 19th girlfriend, each named Katherine.
“He did an end-around on the unfortunate taste by drowning his java in cream, for which Katherine gently teased him that afternoon. It rather goes without saying that Katherine drank her coffee black. Katherines do, generally. They like the coffee like they like their ex-boyfriends: bitter.”
Colin expresses my feeling about coffee. I started drinking it at the Calico House in Kelowna, after young people’s events when I was about 17. We’d gather around the table, wanting to continue in each other’s company, solving the problems of the world, planning our futures, having fun. Calico House put a pitcher of coffee at the table. Inevitably, it ended up in my cup.
I don’t really like it, and I do not do well with caffeine. I had a cup of 2/3 hot chocolate 1/3 coffee at 4:00 on Friday, and I was up until 3 a.m. (and completely unaware of the time. It felt like 9 to me). Most days, I drink either hot chocolate (Carnation, preferably) mixed with some Ovaltine or an herbal tea with honey. This time of year, a hot beverage is a great comfort.
How about you? Do you drink coffee? What is your beverage of choice?
Shawn L. Bird 