I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was 21. When I first heard of espresso in the early nineties, I shunned the notion of paying more than .50/dollar for a damn cup of coffee.

But then it started getting a little more popular and at the time I was working as a line cook in a sports bar/family style restaurant.

About 1996/97, I decided to stop by this little espresso shop near my home. Since I like chocolate, I ordered the mocha. Sounded like a good thing to buy, don’t you think? The combination of strong espresso and cocoa and mik was something I could really get used to.

I was the opening cook at this restaurant and soon discovered how to make my own in the bar before anyone even got there! Then I could mix it way I wanted. Paradise. I would sit at the bar and drink my espresso, smoke cigarettes, and watch the news before I started.

It went on for about a year like that, making my own in the bar. About the early part of 1998, I move the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. Still working at the same restaurant, I was on my way to work one morning and thought I would do the hip, urban thing and stop by the local Starbucks.

I ordered a double tall mocha and that was the first of what would become a daily habit for, quite literally, the next 17 years. Starbucks tasted different. It was fabulous! And the ambience! A little jazz music, some books lying around and little crafty stuff here and there. Casual and quaint about describes it. I like casual and quaint.

To be continued…