I didn’t start drinking coffee until 2008, when I was 39. I had just purchased a small yarn shop (The Spinning Room, where I currently still teach knitting classes!), and I was the owner and the only employee. Two wonderful “helpers,” Yvette and Joan, would come in once a week for a couple of hours to “fluff” the yarn so I could have a little break. For their efforts, I would “buy them a coffee” for this by pinning $5 to the bulletin board.

This is the shop in 2020, 9 years after I sold the business (photo credit to davehiggingsphotography.com). It’s in a beautiful old building, in the heart of Altamont, NY.

Owning a business is a 24/7 deal. I worked many more hours than the shop was open. Especially in the middle of the night when my brain wouldn’t shut off -thinking of all the things I needed to do and hoping that I at least had enough sales to pay the rent and keep the lights on. It was exhausting. After one particularly sleepless night, I came into the shop and was desperate for some sort of eye-opener.

I eyed the “customer” Keurig with skepticism, then relented and made myself a cup. I put approximately one cup of sugar and one gallon of cream in it to make it palatable. I’ve always loved the smell of coffee and the flavor of coffee ice cream, but was disappointed when “real” coffee didn’t taste like coffee ice cream. Hence the concoction I made that day. It seemed to help perk me up for a bit but I quickly came to the conclusion that it was probably because of the sugar, not the caffeine. I’m one of those people that can drink any amount of caffeine before bed and still go right to sleep.

As the years went on, I experimented with other kinds of coffee and coffee drinks. Starbucks became a go-to for any kind of cappuccino, macchiato, or latte. As everyone on a budget quickly realizes, a couple-days-a-week coffee fix is not sustainable (without gift cards.) I started experimenting with making my own coffee and coffee drinks, which has eventually led to this current beverage station situation in my kitchen:

First of all, let it be known that this was the former location of our Ninja toaster oven/air fryer and a regular 2-slot toaster. It took Paul some time to stop grumbling about the new, not-so-ideal locations of those items. I realize now, as I’m creating this post, that it really is a tiny bit ridiculous to have ALL these things for coffee, AND have them ALL out on the counter, but here we are and here we’ll be. So let’s continue…..

A little tour of the caffeine corner, starting with my brewing devices:

In addition to my Keurig*, for brewing my coffee I have:

A hot water kettle: love, Love, LOVE this – it’s quick and has an auto-shutoff). I use it for brewing coffee in my French press (below). Great for my tea, too.

A French press: My BFF Chrissy introduced me to this and I make yummy “regular” coffees.

A Bialetti Moka Pot: I use the 9-cup size for making espresso.( 9-cup = 9 ounces) With the espresso, I create a few different kinds of coffee drinks: cappuccinos, lattes, Americanos, macchiatos, and mochas. And acutally, my resulting beverage is probably a combination of all those things because I don’t really know the amounts to use for each one.

*My Keurig is many years old, so if you click on the link above, I’ve linked to the mini Keurig my sister has which is GREAT. If I had a choice now, I’d get that one.

I started out with a Keurig and tried all the different flavored pods but never found a good flavor to stick with. I always went back to just “regular” coffee. Mostly I used the Keurig to heat up my tea water. And as the years have gone on, I really like stronger, bolder flavored coffee. Recently, while on a trip to Home Goods with my sister, we found these Keurig pods:

Let me tell you: Tall Dark and Handsome Joe is my new love – my favorite coffee pod. So yummy. And I’m down to about a 1/2 gallon of cream and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar in my cup, by the way. Cream in coffee is a must for me – when we are out at a restaurant for breakfast, our table is littered with about 100 little creamers for my tea. (I don’t get coffee at restaurants, only tea. No idea why.)

Ooh and this is my favorite coffee for my French press:

As the packaging says, it is bold and it actually does taste chocolate-y. Mmmmmm.

I also have a section for sweeteners:

Torani syrups are yummy. I tend to go with vanilla or caramel. I also have a hot chocolate mix to make mochas. And the usual white sugar.

A spoon dish:

I know. It’s a lot of spoons. On the left is a wooden spoon for stirring the coffee grounds in the French press (it is glass, so a metal spoon might not be ideal if you are a vigorous stirrer). Next is a measuring spoon to measure beans to put in the grinder for the French press. Then there is the teaspoon for measuring cocoa and sugar. Lastly, is the spoon I use to scoop espresso into the Moka pot. I really do need them all, so they are collected in a little dish that held wet naps (for barbeque sauce cleanup) at our wedding (19 years ago!).

And MUGS!

I have a whole rotation of mugs and these are the three I’m currently using. Up top is my mantra mug “Knit More, Worry Less.” Words to live by, really. I use that one for my French press coffees. To the right is a beautiful handmade mug that I use for my cappu-latte-macchi-ccinos (I have no idea what my concoctions would be classified as). And the sheep mug was gifted to me by a friend and we both love tea so I drink my tea in that one. You really need the right mug for the kind of beverage you are having, right?

And lastly is my milk frother:

Perfect for frothing my half+half (not milk) for my concoctions that I drink from my handmade mug. I haven’t tried making designs in my froth yet, but it turns out a pretty cup of coffee:

And when I sit at the counter to enjoy my coffee, I always have my sidekick:

(And hey, I not-on-purpose made a foam design when I stirred it. Not bad.)

So tell me: Am I ridiculous? You can be honest. I can take it. Please comment below on my setup. Or yours!! Do you have multiple devices? Different mugs for different beverages? Spoons?

The next blog post might be some DIY stuff – we’ve got a bathroom project going on so it might be fun to show you that as it goes along. In the meantime please enjoy a video of Wink looking for mice in the snow. Use the sound – I have a bit of commentary on there.