Echoes of the Garage

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“From Starbucks Burnt to Black Coffee Peace”

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?

I grew up with my mom being fascinated with coffee… and I hated coffee with a passion. I thought it was bad for you. I’d tell her, “Stop drinking it — you have high blood pressure.”

Then in 2013 I met a girl. She became my girlfriend, and she loved coffee too. She was from Mexico and she told me, “You gotta try café de olla.”

I was like, “What is that?”

We finally found it at a Mexican restaurant. I drank it and I was like… wow. This is actually amazing.

After that, I started drinking more coffee. Then me and that girl eventually parted ways… but the coffee stayed.

For a while it was just whatever: Starbucks, Folgers from the store — the basic stuff. But Starbucks always tasted burnt to me. McDonald’s too. Same vibe.

So I heard it’s better (and healthier) when you make your own, and I said, fuck it — I’m gonna try.

I bought a Breville machine that grinds the beans and makes the coffee. It was expensive, but I wanted to see. Then I went down the rabbit hole: roast dates matter, how you store beans matters, and once you do it right the flavor is way better.

Now I drink it black. No half-and-half, no sugar. Just homemade black coffee.

That’s my favorite drink.

Reader question: What’s a thing you hated at first… that you ended up loving later?

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