Coffee or Chocolate -- Thursday's Writing Challenge

Coffee or chocolate ….

Decisions, decisions.  Ain’t life hard?  But what a fun assignment for Thursday’s writing challenge.  I saw Rose’s article announcing this morning’s topic on Orange Juice and was wondering if I could finagle an interruption-free lunch hour to write something post-worthy.  As it happened, I got sick at work and had to go home (No, I didn’t fake something.).  So now I’m sitting in front of my home computer, sipping on a glass of iced Godiva chocolate liquor, poured into my beautiful, tall, lead crystal wine glass, and I’m ready to tell you my coffee/chocolate story.

I’ve known about coffee all my life.  It was a must-have food item for my parents.  We sisters (BGI: four sisters, no brothers) understood from the start that this was a grown-up drink, kids must manage to sneak a sip if they were brave enough.  Sneaking sips and bites of all kinds of things was never a big challenge for us.  What our parents wouldn’t sneak in tiny covert spoonsful, our grandparents aunts and uncles gladly would.  I don’t remember getting my first taste of coffee but the result was that I just didn’t like it.

Everyone else in my family drinks coffee, with enthusiasm, with gusto.  The youngest daughter started drinking coffee from her baby bottle.  This must have been quite an accomplishment for her, to get our mother to go along with this request.

All of us sisters idolize our father but ours was a matriarchal household.  Polly (my mother) got the last word on everything.  She even decided HOW my father would drink his coffee.  She didn’t like sugar in her coffee, so no one in the house could have sugar in their coffee.  Even as a kid, I never understood how she got to dictate that to everyone, but she did.  The up side is that Bud (my father) got to slowly lose a lot of weight because Polly would not allow sweetened coffee at her table.  And it must have been quite an accomplishment for my baby sister to relay the message that she wanted coffee in her baby bottle, and for her to convince Polly to go along with this, but I distinctly remember her at the breakfast table, sucking on a bottle of very light, heavily milked coffee. 

Now chocolate was a different story.  Seems I was born to eat chocolate.  I don’t have quite the obsession that Rose confessed to, or maybe I don’t get to indulge it so freely.  But chocolate has always held a place of honor at my alter of foods to be worshipped. 

I don’t remember having a lot of snacks and nibbles as a kid.  We got three hearty squares a day.  Dessert was seldom included.  And we were not allowed to scavange the fridge and pantry between meals.  Any chance for chocolate would have to come through special occasions, i.e., birthdays and holidays.  Polly is the world’s greatest baker so whipping up a chocolate anything was no challenge for her.  To her credit, I will say that she made a sinfully fabulous chocolate cake.  It was called a mayonnaise cake, with mayonnaise being the secret ingredient.  It was a very fragile and unbelievably moist cake.  It stayed moist and edible days longer than it ever lasted.  This cake came with a choice of two icings.  Polly’s chocolate icing and some kind of fluffy white frosting, both made from scratch.  Her chocolate chip cookies were a seasonal classic.  And once, only once, she made an unbelievable creation of two bite-sized cookies that sandwiched a wonderful chocolate filling.  Polly said they were too much trouble to make.  We sisters remember them to this day.

About coffee, I never got into the habit.  I never desired it, not even as an adult.  Oddly, I’ve never had to make it, at home or at the office.  I tried once at the office.  I was forbidden from ever again making it (gee, my feelings are really hurt).  I did try something one time that I really liked.  I keep a big oversized mug at the office for – you never know what could come up.  It was a miserably cold morning, even for Texas.  One of the guys had already made the first morning pot.  Since the office was deserted, I indulged in an experiment.  I filled my mug with coffee, added a packet of pink sugar and lots of creamer, then I added a full packet of cocoa mix.  This made the best tasting hot drink I had ever had.  But there was a problem.  Apparently, this was a double-triple shot of caffeine.  Not only did I have to go to the bathroom all morning long, but my whole body was buzzing.  And I couldn’t shut up.  Everyone noticed.  The all asked, “Pam, are you on drugs?”  The nerve!  I guess coffee and chocolate is not a good mix, at least not for me.

So I’m a chocolate gal.  Dark is my favorite.  And I have discovered Belgian chocolates.  OMG!!!  Could there be anything more sinful?  So any time you want to bribe me, that’s the way to go.  I’ll tell you anything, gladfully.  And thanks Rose for this fun challenge.