Improvise

Ready-to-use automatic-drip ground coffee is not in abundance in our shop. One of the Marines has a friend that works at a Starbucks, and he received 40 pounds of top-grade Starbucks coffee beans. We have a bean grinder, one of those little hand-held jobbers, it is 110v 60 cycle, power here is 220v 50 cycle, and it is difficult to find a place to operate it—but somehow these guys manage. Myself, I’m hardly a ‘purist,’ employing coffee preparation and usage procedures that most coffee drinkers find (at the least) ghastly, even (at the most) despicable. To my own mind, however, there are two things that drive my methods—it’s the caffeine that’s important, not the taste (necessarily, but if taste can be maintained, so much the better); and the simpler, more efficient and easier the process (I’m lazy), the better. Hence, I always make a whole pot (you’ve got to get the water, get the filter, measure the coffee, and brew the stuff—these are essential chores, whether you brew one cup or ten, so you minimize work by always brewing ten and getting more return for your required labor). I always use two filters (filters are cheap, coffee is expensive, reducing the speed at which the water flows through the filter thickens the coffee while not increasing the amount utilized for each pot). If available, I put a sprinkle of cinnamon on the grounds to reduce the bitterness of the coffee. Finally, I always turn off the pot immediately upon conclusion of brewing. This prevents the coffee getting that nasty baked/burnt too-long-on-the-burner flavor that I find particularly distasteful. Now this brings up the need for improvisation. My coffee cup, given to me by my sister-in-law Sandi, has photographs of my family in it that cannot be microwaved. So, perceiving my dilemma, a Marine offered up a plastic Gatorade bottle for me to use as a ‘nuker’ container. The container was a little tall for the microwave, so we used his knife (a very dangerous looking weapon, I might add) to cut the top off. Voila. I have all I need to keep the caffeine flowing.

Semper Fi, Jon G.