Coffeegasm

Last week, my girlfriend gave me a refrigerator magnet with the definition for Coffeegasm written on it. I had never heard the word before, nor the meaning. Still, I loved the gift. Without a doubt, it’s me.

The definition reads.
Coffeegasm {noun}: that little rush you feel after the first sip of good, strong coffee.

It’s not a real word but so what. It’s an accurate depiction of what I feel when I take that first sip of coffee.

In many of my novels, most especially in my Mona Bendarova series and first introduced in ‘The Taste of Honey,’ the main character Mona wakes up each day and almost immediately seeks that first sip of the day, relishing its flavor and feeling the warmth spread throughout her body. There is a lot of me in this character, as well in the other main character, Charles. Avril in ‘The Trafficking Consortium’ also loves her first sip of the day.

Understanding

Why do I like coffee so much? That’s a good question. It’s not like I grew up drinking it. In fact, my first cup was as an adult, working at my second full-time job. It was not a career job, but just a means to support myself while I stretched for my goals in life. That first cup was dark, black and with a lot of sugar. Looking back at those days, I can’t stand to think that is how I used to drink it. But what it did was get me to drink coffee regularly.

I suppose two things prompted me to try it back in the day. The first was the job. It involved long twelve-hour days, working the whole time on my feet, running around, putting in thousands of steps each day. I can’t even fathom how many miles I put in each of those days. Then one day, on a short break, I looked at the community pot of coffee and said, “Hmmm, let’s try it.”

The second thing enticing me to try it was my father. For as long as I knew him, Dad drank coffee every day. I even remember how he would order it from a street vendor in NYC or at home, or anywhere we would go to a restaurant; hot, extra sweet, extra light. Yuck! Was there even coffee in that cup?

Eventually, I dropped the sugar from my introduction to coffee and drank it hot and black. No doctoring it for me. I even liked the dark roasts and eventually tried my hand at espresso. For decades that’s how I drank my coffee, hot and black. Drinking it iced sounded revolting. Even in the hottest of summers, I drank it hot and black, enjoying that first sip and a coffeegasm.

Changes

That all changed when I found myself divorced and single, on the hunt for a new relationship. I don’t know what people do to meet someone for the first time, but I would meet her at a coffee shop and go from there. Oh my, what an adventure I started, but much of that is for another time. What I did was order a sugar-free vanilla latte. I was hooked.

For those that don’t know that’s an espresso with a shot of sugar-free vanilla syrup and lots of steamed milk. What an amazing taste. I’ve been hooked ever since that day. I literally had a coffeegasm.

Which brings me to the question, is coffee better than sex? Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I love and need both. Both are an orgasm of sorts. Am I addicted to coffee? Am I addicted to sex? Those that know me maybe yes to both. I don’t know. Perhaps the answer to that question is, can I do without either? I choose not to answer that question. Do I prefer one over the other? Again, the same answer.

Now, years later, much to the chagrin of my girlfriend I drank it that way, though not always using espresso. My girlfriend drinks it hot and black and teases me incessantly about adding vanilla and milk.

Amendments

I don’t like the strong dark roasts anymore, instead preferring the lighter roasts. I get that same flavor I love, the coffeegasm from that first sip of the day, and without upsetting my stomach. Yes, strong, dark roasts give me agita (a Yiddish word for an upset stomach.)

So maybe for me, I should amend the definition of coffeegasm to read:

Coffeegasm {noun}: that little rush you feel after the first sip of a good vanilla latte.

What do you think? Do you share your own passion for experiencing a coffeegasm? Let me know what you think. I’m always interested.

Feedback

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For more about me

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