nyj70: A little sugar in my mug




The other morning I was sitting here with my mondo mug o' latte, debating whether or not I needed to add more sugar after having added more coffee in (before the sweetness was perfect). It tasted better before, for sure, but the bitterness now was not unpalatable. In one of those strange flights of fancy an earlyish morning can bring, my brain mused how it is that sugar effectively dilutes the bitterness of coffee. It's not necessarily intuitive. Why shouldn't more water, or something like salt? Is it really "dilution" even? Somehow these ramblings got me thinking how my father always used to sweeten my cups of coffee to just the perfect degree.

I don't remember exactly when, but at some point my parents accepted my initiation into the adult world of steaming caffeine. Perhaps the mail-order savvy that finally bought and brought my own personal coffee maker and stash (thanks to Gevalia) had a role in that coup. At any rate, by Singapore days my hit was always accounted for in Mom's careful measuring out of grounds for the pot. (No doubt my younger siblings' reliance on coffee had taught her that "the junk" (as my friend likes to call it) was in our adulthood her offspring's new milk.

And then I thought, Dad used to make me a cup of coffee. Which I recall him always doing with such cheerfulness and no mind about it. It was really a sweet thing to do, but something I don't think I appreciated about it because he was simply my dad and in high school or college one doesn't think, Wow, it's really nice for a man to take so much care with my coffee.

Now I would appreciate such cheerfully made, perfectly sweetened cups a lot. And I wrote Dad to tell him so — because, really, what good does such a happy, grateful thought toward someone else do if they never know the smile and warmth they brought to a moment for you?

posted @ 01:25 PM on Thu - October 20, 2005 remark! Email |  as quoted:
before I said ...  but more recently: 

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