I’m one of those people who needs coffee as soon as I wake up and then again a few times during the day. An addiction? Maybe. But this is the way it’s been since I was age five or six and my Aunt Roz and Uncle Mac came to live with us. They were newly married and hadn’t found living quarters. Aunt Roz, who loved children, volunteered to get up with us in the morning and get us ready for school.

Her idea of breakfast was coffee. To be fair, it was a lot of milk with coffee mixed in. But it was coffee just the same and that’s how the coffee thing started.

Right now I’m slowly sipping the morning brew, a blend of Hawaiian Rainforest and Brazilian that has a nice, rounded and pleasant taste. It’s a good combo for iced coffee too.

This morning’s coffee was made in my new electric coffee maker.  Last week I finally put away my beloved old coffeemaker. I say “beloved” because I’ve had it for over 15 years and “put away” because I couldn’t throw it out. It still works unbelievably well and is the best coffeemaker I ever had. It’s a Braun electric drip model that I bought after I tested one for an article I was writing for Consumer’s Digest Magazine.

This old thing never died and made perfect, hot coffee every time. I wish they still had that model (in stainless steel), but it no longer matched anything in my kitchen and everyone I knew made fun of me for keeping it so long.

Why throw something away when it still works?

So I didn’t. I put it in a cabinet in the garage just in case my new coffeemaker, which is beautiful and blends in with all the other appliances, doesn’t work out. So far, so good. The coffee this morning is delish.