Sugar in My Coffee

For the last several days, I've been sweetening my coffee!

That doesn't sound very earth-shattering, does it? But it's a sea change for me.

See, my parents have drunk black, unsweetened coffee ever since I can remember, so I learned growing up that the proper way to drink it is without sugar. When I'd see someone else sweeten their coffee, it would always strike me as a little exotic -- and definitely unnecessary. I certainly did not approve. When I began to drink an occasional cup myself, my attitude was that I wanted it to taste like coffee, not like sugar! And so it was for a long, long time.

Once I grew up and got a job and started having coffee at work, others would see me drink it straight. Often they'd ask if I was on a diet -- that's how strange unsweetened coffee seemed to them! (I've also been asked the same question several times while eating a salad, which always seems so weird. Eating a salad means you're on a diet? I guess they didn't grow up eating them most evenings with their dinner, as I did.) But these were folks whose parents put sugar in their coffee, so that's what they learned as kids.

It guess it is pretty obvious that kids learn what they live at home, but it still often strikes me as surprising how very much of our daily life and habits are formed early. I learned to drink my coffee straight long before I even learned to drink coffee! As an adult I would very occasionally (once or twice a year) drink a cup with sugar in it, but never without a vague feeling of being careless and wasteful and unnnecessarily luxurious -- a slight sense of debauchery, I'd guess you you could call it.

And then for some unknown reason about a week ago I decided I no longer wanted bitterness in my breakfast, and I added a spoonfull of sugar to the coffee granules before I poured the water in. That sugar sure took the edge off of my cheap instant coffee! And I've never looked back. Maybe when I drink a cup of the good, brewed stuff I'll be a purist, but for now sweetness is the way to go with instant.

I'm not completely debauched, though, and I haven't totally betrayed the family; I still prefer my tea, hot and iced, unsweetened.

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