How To Drink Coffee

I never tasted coffee until I was 49 years old. Everyone said, "How did you spend four years in the U.S. Navy and never drank coffee"? I had served coffee in our family café and later as a waiter at the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City, Fla. When I was 49 years old and working as a telephone repairman at Bel Air California I had to take coffee breaks. I passed a coffee shop and went in. They served the coffee of the day along with a fresh squeezed glass of orange juice. Apparently, the acid from one complimented the acid of the other making them both taste better. I enjoyed the coffee of the day for a while and finally asked why they never featured the Puerto Rican Coffee. The clerk told me that the Puerto Rican Coffee cost twenty five dollars a pound. I thought I probably wouldn't ever get to taste the Puerto Rican Coffee. Our youngest child graduated from high school in Culver City California and my wife and I ran away from home. We bought three acres on the big island of Hawaii and built a house in the rain forest. One day my neighbor gave me a small coffee tree. It grew up really fast and produced little red coffee beans when they ripened. On my way to work I would grab three of the ripe beans and eat them. Soon I was grabbing twelve of them and eating them. We would shop at the Farmers Market in Hilo, Hawaii on Saturdays. One Saturday I bought a sandwich baggie of kona coffee from a vendor for six dollars and fifty cents a pound. As I started to walk away, I said "Wait, What's that bag of coffee on a different shelf that costs twelve dollars and fifty cents?". The lady explained, "Oh, those beans came off the same tree as the ones you bought. Only they came from the outside of the canopy which had the most photosynthesis creating much more caffeine. My bag of coffee came from under the canopy. So naturally I had to try the other coffee too. I sent a bag to my uncle in Santa Barbara California and told me he only drank one cup of that instead of two. Later I found where Costco in Kona had two pounds of Hawaiian Coffee for nine dollars. I tried it and found it to be really high in caffeine. Some guy on Kuai had started a coffee plantation and his little trees had very few leaves. I drank his coffee for about three years and noticed the caffeine level had gone down. I decided he finally got some leaves on his trees. Years later my wife and I took a cruise of the Caribbean Island and stopped off in Puerto Rico. While touring an old fort, I found a pound of Puerto Rican coffee for seven dollars and ninety five cents. The clerk told me to go downtown to the supermarket and purchase San Ysidro Coffee for six ninety five cents a pound. On the back of the bag was a web-site where my wife can order 40 ounces of coffee for my birthday if I have been nice. So I finally got try Puerto Rican Coffee after all. For our latest coffee pleasure we buy "Café Bustelo" in a red and yellow can. It can be found in most supermarkets and Wal-Marts. Apparently the Cubans in South Florida get coffee beans grown in Cuba but shipped to Mexico for Processing and Grinding. When Starbucks became widespread both McDonalds and Burger King changed their coffee to try to compete. I think the best cup of coffee in town is to be found at Burger King. That's the only thing I get there. Thanks please, JJ