Moment of Truth
by Tess F. |
June 13, 2011 07:13 PM |
18 comments
Tess F.
Location:
Cranford, NJ
Favorite Flavor:
Pumpkin Spice
If you could travel back in time, what era would you live in? I like where I am now. Facebook. iPhones. Movies on Demand.
How do you unwind after a long day? DVR'd TV with my husband, who always makes me laugh.
Three things you cannot live without…My family, my iPhone, my coffee.
I am a member of the Coffee-mate Brew Crew.
Sure, the signs had been there for a while. Planning grocery trips around stores likely to have my favorite flavor in stock. Using the travel formula container to take powdered Coffee-mate—not baby formula—on the go. But finally, the revelation: I was more than a fan—I was a Coffee-mate fanatic.
Let me start by saying that I’ve been drinking coffee since roughly the age of 10. I have always loved coffee—a little milk, usually more than a little sugar. And for more than 15 years, it never occurred to me to mess with the formula.
I’m not sure when I first tried Coffee-mate, but I know the exact moment I realized it had become an absolute necessity. It was a dreary day, shortly after the birth of my second child, when I realized that I was fresh out. Having gotten up at least three times the previous night, and woke for good at 5 am that morning, I needed my coffee. But without its special mate, I just didn’t think I would be able to tolerate it.
I decided to get creative. Couldn’t I whip up my own chocolate-flavored coffee concoction simply by adding something chocolaty? I found an old hot cocoa packet in the back of a cabinet and stirred a little into my coffee mug. It was actually…kind of gross.
My toddler appeared at my side, asking for chocolate milk. How different could chocolate milk be from chocolate non-dairy creamer? I asked myself. Clearly, very. It was even more disgusting than my previous effort—a flavorless, mud-colored mess.
I opened the pantry and looked around, my eyes resting on a box of Pumpkin-Spice granola bars. Was it kismet? Or rock-bottom? A few crumbly sips later…rock-bottom, indeed.
It’s no surprise that day’s very desperate, very sad game of Top Coffee Chef did not yield a worthy substitute for Coffee-mate. But it was a red-letter day in my decades-long relationship with java. I realized that from here on out, if there was no Coffee-mate, there’d be no coffee, so I might as well fire up the tea kettle.
Of course, a few months later, I started adding Coffee-mate to my tea, but that’s a story for another day.