How it began and odd ways of getting my fix
I wasn't always a coffee drinker. I fought the demon for years during my early Army days. Coffee drinkers couldn't understand my lack of desire to drink coffee, just like I no longer understand how someone could not drink it. Of course, I go one step further and can't understand how anyone could add cream and sugar to something so perfect as coffee, but I digress...
I first started drinking coffee when I attended the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC) in 1995. That is a course that is related to a Soldier's promotion to SGT. The course was held out at the NCO Academy aka: The East Range Correctional Facility and was a stay in their barracks away from the prying eyes of civilization type course. I was warned before attending the course that the days were often filled with hours of classes that would put a spastic child to sleep and that getting stuff brought to me on the inside would be harder than getting a file to a prisoner. I took two rolls of quarters to feed to the Coke machine, thinking that would be enough. Within a couple days, I was on the short stack of my second roll. I realized at that point that cofffee was free. Well, not technically free, someone had bought it, but it was made everyday in our classroom and everyone was welcome to drink it. The only rule was if you killed the joe, you made some moe. I also realized that cream and sugar were not free. There was effort involved - you had to remember to pocket a few packets at breakfast and bring them to class. That was too much for me, so I only drank it black.
Coffee kept me going throughout the classroom hours of PLDC. I drank a lot of coffee. I learned that a benefit of drinking a lot of coffee was that the need to urinate is another powerful motivator to stay awake. When we did our 3 day field problem, coffee became a great help in my being able to function despite only getting about 6 hours of sleep. Total.
When I graduated and moved back to my normal barracks, it wasn't long before I had my own Mr. Coffee. I even became a bit of a coffee snob and bought a bean grinder and joined the Gloria Jeans 'if you spend a lot of money here, we'll occasionally give you a dollar off our crazy expensive coffee beans' program. We had coffee time in the barracks on some weekend morning where we'd get together and share different brews. I was quickly becoming a coffee nerd, and junkie.
When I moved to Korea, I started working a lot of nights. I kept up with the beans thing, but had to settle for whatever the commissary carried. I would take a thermos (full-pot sized) up on every flight and would bring it back empty. The only night I ever came close to getting airsick was the night I took up some Chocolate-Raspberry brew. That was the last time I ever used those beans and they may still be in the barracks common room fridge to this day.
After I moved back to Hawaii, my wife and I settled in on a regular brew of Kona coffee. Not the really expensive 100% Kona, but the stuff that comes in the white bags and is at leat 10%. We'd still get the flavored beans sometimes. She likes the Hazelnut and I like the Irish Cream, but we started steering more often towards the regular roasts. Later, we moved to the ground coffee. Grinding beans daily got to be a hassle and delayed our coffee drinking significantly (15-20 seconds)!
Today, we usually buy the super sized can of Folgers at Costco. We still like the occasional Kona or whole bean coffee, but for everyday use, I recommend it. It works.
Now, what got me going on this in the first place was that I was thinking of some of the odd ways, over the years, I have gotten my coffee fix. Here are just a couple-
I drink coffee in the shower. I don't mean that I take a cup into the bathroom and put it on the sink so I can have it right after I get out. I mean, I take it into the shower with me. I put the cup on a shelf and drink it between lather, rinse, repeats. I did it a lot in Korea because we had a high shelf that was safe from soap splashage. Here, I have no such shelf, so I have to be very careful or else I get dial flavored coffee. I've actually thought about using my travel mug. That would keep out the water.
In the field, I've used the MRE coffee to stay awake. I don't mean, I've heated up some water and added in the instant folgers crystals. I mean, I've taken the packet and poured it into the space between my lip and gums. Like a coffee dip. In the field, a lot of guys use dip to stay awake, but since I don't use tobacco products, I use instant coffee instead. I put it there and let the crystals dissolve and swallow the coffee flavored spit. Mmmm-mmm-good! And it gets you wired.
So, what about you? Any odd ways to get your fix?