I wish I could drink coffee in the afternoons. Especially on a day like today where it's so cold and miserable. But, for some reason, it upsets my stomach, especially on an empty stomach. I can drink it in the morning with breakfast and it doesn't bother me, but other times of day I have problems - boo! I used to really enjoy "Irish" coffee in the evenings, with a little Kahlua and Amaretto and lots of cream.
I am sorry Mal you can't enjoy a cup with me in the afternoons. I understand what you are saying. My eating & drinking patterns have changed dramatically over the years based on my health. I think the key is to enjoy those things we know are good for us, and celebrate those things!
Sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own skin. I went through menopause about a year ago, and now my whole body is changing. My husband laughs that my thermostat is broken - of course, he's the one that has to wear a jacket inside when I turn the temp down to 64! Just when I was getting used to how my body worked, it changed. I also say that God has an ironic sense of humor - he makes mothers go through hormonal changes at the same time their teenage children do!!
Mal, I honestly have never thought about how that works with the teenage/menopause hormonal overlap! What I do know is that we as ladies experience so many hormonal changes, we definitely cannot trust our feelings. It's been quite a roller coaster ride at times!
I needed to order some dog food for Chipper, so that semed like a good time to try some of the flavored coffee from Amazon. I looked through the Coffee Fool offerings, and found the ones that were on the clearance prices, and then narrowed that down to about 4 bags, which put my order (along with the dog food) over the required $25 for prime free shipping. So, now I am happily drinking my first bag, which is called "chocolate peanut-butter pie" coffee. It tastes like the chocolate, buut you can smell just a hint of the peanut butter in there, as well. When that is gone, I will be next experimenting with the "creme brulee", or whichever one catches my fancy next. I can see a happy coffee future ahead of me......
I really enjoy Cappucino and Latte those are my favourite types of coffees. They are really great ones!
Another brand of coffee that I like a lot and get on subscription from Amazon.com is Honduran Marcala, which is a Granny's Gourmet Coffee product. I get two of them a month, two of the Coffee Fool Foolash Goolash coffees, and another that I'll be trying out for the first time next month.
Because high blood pressure runs in the family, i make my own coffee out of corn grits. I roast the ground corn grains until it become dark brown. The taste is as satisfying to me as any commercial coffee.
We are not into gourmet coffees. I drink my morning coffee black while my wife adds stevia and irish cream to hers. I've spent most of my life in the lower side of middle class, but I've never been so poor I had to grind my own coffee. I make Folgers grind it for me.
I once read about making "coffee" from dandelion roots, kind of like chickory coffee. Since chickory and dandelions are pretty closely related; it sounded like an interesting thing to try. We did not have many dandelions in the yard, so I took the kids down to play at the park, and while they were having fun on the swings; I was going around and digging up the dandelions and putting them in my bucket. I took them home, separated the roots from any leafy parts that were left, and then washed the roots really well, put them in the oven on a very low temperature, and let them roast until they were a dark brown. At that point, the roots had dried and shriveled up so much, there was very little left to grind; but i put it in the blender and crunched the roots into about the same size as coffee grounds are. Since my day's efforts had given me less than a cup of coffee grounds, and the one piece that i tasted was pretty bitter; I mixed the dandelion roots coffee in with some of the regular coffee that we had and used it that way. It made a stronger, and bitter flavor, which was interesting, but not one that I thought was worth all of the effort that it took to make it.
Pretty much every part of the dandelion can be used, the only danger being that, if you are using dandelions from your yard, you need to pay attention to the types of fertilizers and insect killing chemicals you may have used on your yard. My mom used to use the leaves for tea, and to mix them in with salads sometimes. I have heard of using the roots for coffee, but haven't tried it. My wife brought it up just the other day, so she came across it somewhere too. Interesting, when I was looking through the plant catalog, I found that you can buy dandelion seeds, and after all these years of thinking of it as a weed. Another quite edible plant that often grows as a weed in the lawn is plantain; its broad-based leaves can be used in salads or soups. In an attempt to bring this thread back on-topic, it might be interesting to try some mixtures of coffee with dandelion roots. During times of shortages, I know that chicory was used as a coffee substitute and I used to be able to find Louisiana coffee that include chicory, and I thought that was good.
My friend, Yvonne Smith, buys Coffee Fool brand on Amazon when it is on clearance. She is a sweetheart and shares her finds with me. She recently gave me some Blueberry Cinnamon and some Chocolate Pumpkin that I really enjoyed a lot. The Blueberry one is finished up and I have one pot of the Choclolate Pumkin left. So I am back to my regular unflavored coffee. I do enjoy my coffee every morning. And like some of you, I do not care for Starbucks coffee in the shops, but I did get some on clearance at Kroger a few months ago,,, and I just brewed it weaker than they do and it was okay.
I have eaten some dandelion greens and also some plantain leaves. I don't put any kind of chemicals on the lawn; and I try to only pick them after a rain when they are fresher tasting. I have found that i prefer them lightly cooked rather than raw in a salad, however, because dandelions are bitter. As far as mixing the roasted roots in with your coffee; that is what i did and it came out okay; but I killed a lot of dandelions when I was digging them out. Now that I want to use the leaves as a green, I don't want to dig up the dandelion. I am kind of liking the idea of roasting grits and making coffee with that; they might give coffee an interesting flavor, and would not have caffeine (or at least not as much when mixed with regular coffee) like just having a regular cup of coffee does. I have had Postum and Pero before, and it is made from roasted grains. While it does not taste exactly like coffee, it is a good substitute when you want something hot to drink at night and don't want to have coffee. So if you hear Bobby Cole grumbling on here that his morning grits are disappearing, then you will all know that I am probably experimenting....
I have wonderful memories of shopping at the A&P with my Mom when I was little, and inhaling the amazing aroma of the freshly ground coffee. My ultimate favorite is Dunkin' Donuts, but I don't often have it, so at home, I usually make Eight O'Clock or Folgers. I can't handle the rough brands like Starbucks, because they tear up my stomach. I add a lot of half n half and sugar, because that's how I grew up drinking it, and it's still how I think it tastes best.