Congratulations Bosnia.
You win. I have successfully fought off coffee addiction for the past 23 years and 10 months of my life without much trouble. But after one month in this small nation known as “the heart of Europe”, I have an addiction to the dark warm beverage.
The early years were easy to avoid coffee. My parents aren’t coffee drinkers. I remember thinking it was weird when family members would come and visit our house and Mom would dig out the coffee pot from the garage. I recall a discussion about the quality of coffee my parents had. I didn’t understand why people were upset with the same coffee in the freezer they had had on their last visit to our home.
Then there was the early latte, mocha and frappe phase in Redmond, Oregon. Come to think of this, I don’t know how “early” this actually was since Redmond, as you may know is not on the cutting edge of trends. To this day their only Starbucks that I know of is in the Safeway. Anywho, in 8th grade and into high school, I remember going to the drive up coffee stand and ordering Snickers drinks and other fancy milkshakes and coffees. Even then I liked them more for the sweet factor than the actual coffee and I don’t even really crave sweets or desserts.
Then there was college in Portland. At this juncture in my life, my friends were definitely beginning to indulge their daily coffee craving. They said they needed it to get through the day and stay focused. I could see their point. College was draining. The late nights of studying and goofing around with your friends, the occasional long boring lecture, and short rainy days made Univ. of Portland a prime place for sipping coffee.
But I found my refresher during this portion in my life to be cat naps rather than the coffee drug. My favorite way to nap was to turn on PBS and listen to Bob Ross as he lulled me to a short little nap. Those were the days. I thought, Bob Ross is definitely better than coffee.
My junior year of college was the first time coffee was an expected part of culture. At the pensioni where I lived, coffee was served every morning. The staff didn’t like making hot chocolate for us non-coffee drinkers and there was always a little hesitation. Coffee seemed like it would be a useful substance since the weekend travels, studying, exploring the city and partying with friends left little time for sleep. I was still able to avoid drinking coffee on a basis of necessity. Every now and again I would have a cappuccino when meeting up with a friend. But I consider this coffee consumption casual rather than anything else.
Following college, I moved to Seattle- the US mecca of coffee. While Starbucks locations outnumbered fans in attendance to Mariners games during this period 2x1, I still did not find it difficult to function without coffee. I was able to get sufficient sleep and I didn’t feel the social pressure to have a coffee, espresso, or even a venti, non-fat, soy, peppermint mocha, room for cream during our bi-weekly team meetings at Starbucks.
Coffee is surely the national beverage of Bosnia. It is consumed morning, noon, and night by everyone 18 or and older. In the mornings you’ll see people sitting at café’s. At most offices people take coffee breaks just an hour or two into the work day to enjoy a cup of joe. They call these breaks staff meetings since everyone gathers together to talk, drink coffee and smoke. The same is true in the afternoons. Many people have a cup in the early evening before dinner with their friends, family, and neighbors back on their porch at home. On people’s after dinner
stroll through the center of the city many people can be seen sipping the dark beverage.
Bosnian coffee is fairly similar to Turkish coffee I’m told. This makes sense since Bosnia was a territory of the Ottoman Empire for several hundred years and many of the cultural traditions from that era are still preserved in this region. The coffee is roasted and then ground into a fine powder. Then the powder is added to boiling water, often times while it is still on the stove. The pot the water is boiling in, traditionally was made out of copper with a long handle, but now they are made of all sorts of materials. The coffee then churns several times with the boiling water and then the pot is removed from heat.
The coffee is consumed out of small cups somewhere between espresso and tea cups. Many people take sugar with their coffee, but they don’t add it to the drink- they dip it in the coffee,
take a little nibble off the sugar cube and then take a sip of coffee. The grounds have never been filtered out and their particles suspended in the rest the water for little while, so as you approach the bottom of the cup you’ll notice a thick layer of sludge that was once the grounds which flavored your drink. I avoid the last sip since it is a little bit too strong for me.
Drinking coffee is truly a social experience. It is for that reason alone that I began drinking the stuff. Wanting to adapt to the social situation here, I would accept a cup that was offered to me during one of our daily “staff meetings”, usually the afternoon one. I could get by with saying I had drank coffee at home in the morning before I came into work. After a week or two of enjoying a little Doncafe, the most popular brand of prepackaged coffee, in the afternoon I began noticing the benefits. Maybe it was because trying to keep up with so many children is challenging, maybe I was being mentally drained by trying to function in a language I don’t really know. But the fact is I enjoyed having the pick me up from the coffee in the afternoon to get me through the rest of the day.
So there you have it, I now need coffee to get myself through the day. I’m addicted. Congratulations Bosnia, you win. You’ve been able to convert me, something that Howard Schultz has never been able to accomplish.
You win. I have successfully fought off coffee addiction for the past 23 years and 10 months of my life without much trouble. But after one month in this small nation known as “the heart of Europe”, I have an addiction to the dark warm beverage.
The early years were easy to avoid coffee. My parents aren’t coffee drinkers. I remember thinking it was weird when family members would come and visit our house and Mom would dig out the coffee pot from the garage. I recall a discussion about the quality of coffee my parents had. I didn’t understand why people were upset with the same coffee in the freezer they had had on their last visit to our home.Then there was the early latte, mocha and frappe phase in Redmond, Oregon. Come to think of this, I don’t know how “early” this actually was since Redmond, as you may know is not on the cutting edge of trends. To this day their only Starbucks that I know of is in the Safeway. Anywho, in 8th grade and into high school, I remember going to the drive up coffee stand and ordering Snickers drinks and other fancy milkshakes and coffees. Even then I liked them more for the sweet factor than the actual coffee and I don’t even really crave sweets or desserts.
Then there was college in Portland. At this juncture in my life, my friends were definitely beginning to indulge their daily coffee craving. They said they needed it to get through the day and stay focused. I could see their point. College was draining. The late nights of studying and goofing around with your friends, the occasional long boring lecture, and short rainy days made Univ. of Portland a prime place for sipping coffee.
But I found my refresher during this portion in my life to be cat naps rather than the coffee drug. My favorite way to nap was to turn on PBS and listen to Bob Ross as he lulled me to a short little nap. Those were the days. I thought, Bob Ross is definitely better than coffee.
My junior year of college was the first time coffee was an expected part of culture. At the pensioni where I lived, coffee was served every morning. The staff didn’t like making hot chocolate for us non-coffee drinkers and there was always a little hesitation. Coffee seemed like it would be a useful substance since the weekend travels, studying, exploring the city and partying with friends left little time for sleep. I was still able to avoid drinking coffee on a basis of necessity. Every now and again I would have a cappuccino when meeting up with a friend. But I consider this coffee consumption casual rather than anything else.
Following college, I moved to Seattle- the US mecca of coffee. While Starbucks locations outnumbered fans in attendance to Mariners games during this period 2x1, I still did not find it difficult to function without coffee. I was able to get sufficient sleep and I didn’t feel the social pressure to have a coffee, espresso, or even a venti, non-fat, soy, peppermint mocha, room for cream during our bi-weekly team meetings at Starbucks.
Coffee is surely the national beverage of Bosnia. It is consumed morning, noon, and night by everyone 18 or and older. In the mornings you’ll see people sitting at café’s. At most offices people take coffee breaks just an hour or two into the work day to enjoy a cup of joe. They call these breaks staff meetings since everyone gathers together to talk, drink coffee and smoke. The same is true in the afternoons. Many people have a cup in the early evening before dinner with their friends, family, and neighbors back on their porch at home. On people’s after dinner
stroll through the center of the city many people can be seen sipping the dark beverage.Bosnian coffee is fairly similar to Turkish coffee I’m told. This makes sense since Bosnia was a territory of the Ottoman Empire for several hundred years and many of the cultural traditions from that era are still preserved in this region. The coffee is roasted and then ground into a fine powder. Then the powder is added to boiling water, often times while it is still on the stove. The pot the water is boiling in, traditionally was made out of copper with a long handle, but now they are made of all sorts of materials. The coffee then churns several times with the boiling water and then the pot is removed from heat.
The coffee is consumed out of small cups somewhere between espresso and tea cups. Many people take sugar with their coffee, but they don’t add it to the drink- they dip it in the coffee,
take a little nibble off the sugar cube and then take a sip of coffee. The grounds have never been filtered out and their particles suspended in the rest the water for little while, so as you approach the bottom of the cup you’ll notice a thick layer of sludge that was once the grounds which flavored your drink. I avoid the last sip since it is a little bit too strong for me.Drinking coffee is truly a social experience. It is for that reason alone that I began drinking the stuff. Wanting to adapt to the social situation here, I would accept a cup that was offered to me during one of our daily “staff meetings”, usually the afternoon one. I could get by with saying I had drank coffee at home in the morning before I came into work. After a week or two of enjoying a little Doncafe, the most popular brand of prepackaged coffee, in the afternoon I began noticing the benefits. Maybe it was because trying to keep up with so many children is challenging, maybe I was being mentally drained by trying to function in a language I don’t really know. But the fact is I enjoyed having the pick me up from the coffee in the afternoon to get me through the rest of the day.
So there you have it, I now need coffee to get myself through the day. I’m addicted. Congratulations Bosnia, you win. You’ve been able to convert me, something that Howard Schultz has never been able to accomplish.
No comments:
Post a Comment