Morning Beverage

I've mentioned that I drink coffee in passing many times during basically unrelated posts. It's reasonable to infer that it's my beverage of choice, but you would be mistaken in thinking that I drink it exclusively, and might also be mistaken in other assumptions based on those references. As much as I drink, it might seem like I would be very knowledgeable about the beverage. I faintly understand about different machines and coffee styles, but generally stick to my cheap machine and cheap bulk-purchase coffee. In some respects I guess I just have very average tastes- I often loudly avow that things of mine are those of "The Common Man". So it is with my morning beverages.

Occasionally though, I do get a little adventurous by at least my own standards. It all depends on what is easily available. When something else is available, I tend to take advantage of the opportunity to have it. At restaurants, I often get orange juice rather than coffee. Sometimes in other peoples' homes, I request tea. I always have liked orange juice, and don't often get it now. If it were the only option for forestalling scurvy, I'd be more likely to, but I have Vitamin C pills. If I do get orange juice, I prefer the good stuff. I never have been a fan of the cheap, sugary stuff- it's so sickly sweet, I get queasy at the mere thought. I like premium orange juice, and an inclined towards pulp. That's kind of a psychological thing- it just seems like if I'm getting pulp, I'm getting more value somehow. That might not be a rational line of thought.

I mainly only get hot tea if I expect to be seen with it and am hoping to make an impression. Be critical of me if you will. The investment of time, equipment and studying to get into tea is just too great for me. Sure, it's simple enough to just buy the little tea bags, but I like to do things more fully if I can. I guess it's what they call making the perfect the enemy of the good. Even should I get past that point, there seems to be just a bewildering and endless variety of styles, with no apparent rhyme or reason distinguishing one from the next. Like most Americans, I favor iced tea. It's flavorful and simple- maybe something like me, reader?

At the moment, I'm attempting to work through some instant coffee crystals which I found while clearing out the old apartment. Frankly, they're vile. If there's anything powerful to override my sense of revulsion at the drink's taste, it's my sense of economy (I'm also eating oatmeal that had languished on the shelf for some time in favor of things I was more easily able to make myself eat). My roommate works at a coffee shop, and is considerably more picky- not in an especially strident way, mind you. He just has a more refined taste, and accedes to it. His manually-operated machine mystifies me, and I make no attempt to use it. If he is making some already, I'll request enough that I may also have a cup. Outside of that, I see that machine something like a dog sees a vacuum cleaner.