Coffee - A Social Event not just a drink

My grandmother, Corine Smelley, affectionately called "mam-maw" taught me to drink coffee. {Her last name will be discussed in another Blog story and is very amusing.}

When a little girl I loved to spend the night with mamaw and papa. My memories are of cool Fall mornings in their older farm house, walking on a cold hardwood floor into the kitchen filled with the smell of homemade biscuits, bacon frying, and freshly brewed coffee. No "Mr. Coffee" for them. No instant coffee. She had a real metal 'pot' filled with boiling water and would literally throw a handful of coffee into it, bring it to a boil (brewing?), and knew exactly when it was 'right'. I never saw her measure it. She knew exactly how much "felt right", and was the correct amount in her hand. Amazing.

Large white cups always sat in saucers that were more like shallow bowls than the saucers we know of today. She would pour the hot coffee into the cup until it barely touched the rim. Then large heaping spoons of pure white sugar were added, stirred, and followed by milk. No 2%; no low-fat... it was pure whole milk and it was heavenly.

Since the cup had originally been filled to the brim, the addition of sugar and milk caused it to spill into the saucer-bowl underneath. This was not an accident. Mamaw called it "saucering your coffee." This act seemed to allow the scalding hot coffee to slowly cool as well. I say this because the small amount of cooling coffee that spilled in the saucer was the first thing I drank. I would eagerly slurp it and felt so "grown up" sitting there with these two well-aged people.

Breakfast would continue over biscuits buttered with real butter that melted and ran out the side, homemade jelly, slabs of thick bacon, scrambled eggs, and the wonderful creamy sweet coffee. We would eat over lively conversation about the cows that needed to be fed, fields that needed plowing, church members who were sick, and family members in Texas.

This simple meal, starting our day over 40 years ago, is a memory I cherish and will not easily forget. And it was an experience that taught me to 'enjoy and savor' the socializing that comes with sipping a cup of coffee.

Even today I consider drinking coffee not so much an 'act' as a 'social event'. I love these new flavored coffees and the 'foo-foo' creamers that go in them. I enjoy the local coffee house atmosphere where the locals come in and discuss the fishing industry, local restaurants, and impending hurricane or oil spill disaster. But most of all I enjoy sitting on my little porch at the beach, with the soft breeze blowing my hair, inhaling the salty air, and sipping my chocolate swirl coffee with caramel creamer. And I remember "saucering coffee" with Mamaw.

I loved that woman. And I love coffee.