Indulgences...or...name your poison

Humans are a selfish lot.  I think it may have something to do with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but nursing school was more years ago than I care to share, since I am getting to the time of life where a woman winces inwardly when asked her age, and may fudge it down by a few years if she can pull it off.  Most of us go through life trying to fight these selfish urges.  We donate to charity, we sacrifice for the good of others, we try to live our lives the "right" way.  Being human, that doesn't always work.  However, if we can be unselfish where it counts, and a little selfish where it doesn't, I think it's a job well done.  I try to live my life by practicing tolerance, looking for the good in everyone (even the wench that cut me off on the Thruway) and accepting people for who they are without trying to change them (my husband is the only exception to the latter - but that is because he's forgotten most of the good teaching he received from HIS mother as a child) 

I do have two indulgences.  Two things that I will not "compromise" in any way, shape or form.  One is chocolate.  I must have Salazon Chocolate.  I tried the others, Salazon shines.  Don't get me started, or I will wax poetic and this whole blog post will be a love story for the brand.  I have some previous posts where I drooled over Salazon, read those, then go out and buy a bar or two.  Or three.  Ok ok, round it out, make it four, then it will last you for a while.  The good thing about Salazon, is it's so good you really can't pig out on it, because you want to savor the flavor.  So you take a little piece, and like the hamster that stuffs its little cheeks full of fruity goodness and then runs to its little house to enjoy the bounty because he doesn't want to share, you find a comfy chair and a good book away from your family (because if you walk into the room where they are congregated watching TV or doing whatever, you know your chocolate bar will be gone before you can say "Hey! that's MY chocolate!" the minute they get a whiff - I know it's happened to me)...or...if you are outside walking a mountain trail on a crisp spring morning, you break a square off and save the rest for when you reach the summit, making sure your fellow hikers either have their own bar, or, if they were silly enough not to bring one and decided instead on that "goop" crap, you surreptitiously sneak a bit from your day pack when they are otherwise occupied with tripping over a tree root on the trail.  Either way it's an indulgence that enhances your experience rather than overwhelms it.  If I want a piece of chocolate, it has to be Salazon.  It can't be Hershey's, Nestles, Theo's, Vsoges, or some other bar that claims to be chocolate.  It can't be the store brand that is on sale for 99 cents this week only, because I won't buy it.  I'll pay the extra for Salazon because it's my indulgence.

The other indulgence I have is for coffee.  I'm not quite sure how that started, or how my palate developed to where I reeeeaaallly can't stand bad coffee.  You know, the kind that tastes bitter and smells sort of metallicy and acidy.  I've run the gamut with coffee.  I started out drinking it very light and sweet, and gradually went to black.  When you drink black coffee, you can TELL A BAD COFFEE much easier then when you camoflauge it with cream and sugar.  Just sayin'.  I drank my coffee black for years, until I found out I had GERD,  so I switched back to cream, but no sugar, and decaffeinated.  I drank it that way for a while until Starbucks became the fotm, then I sort of got used to adding a bit of syrup to my coffee.  Now I'm at lightly sweet with regular cream.  I guess that would be a "regular with half a sugar" at the Dunkin' Donuts Drive Through.  The small "quintessential New England" town in CT where we once lived for 5 years had a population of about 15000 people and TEN COFFEE SHOPS.  Count em'. TEN.  Coffee was a big thing in Madison, CT.  Now, they weren't all "Coffee Shops".  I'm including any place where any Madisonian went to get their morning cuppa Joe.  That included the mom n' pop breakfast shop called "the diner" by locals,(probably not to confuse it with the myriad of COFFEE SHOPS in town,  but it was really a storefront - what makes a place a "diner" as opposed to a "coffee shop" or "restaurant"?, the Dunkin' Donuts, and various other eateries, as well as the two main Coffee Shops in town, The Madison Beanery  and Willoughby's, both of which are still there 10 years later, which is a testament to how much New Englanders like their coffee. 

I was a Beanery aficianado, Willoughby's beans were alway a bit bitter IMO, but it's a matter of taste.  I guess I just answered my own question as to where I refined my coffee taste buds. 

One day I was surfing the web and came across The Coffee Fool.  Their claim drew me in.  I must confess, at first I thought they were crazy.

If you're a tad adventurous like us, you look for stuff that will change your life for the better. But, in a world with millions of products, great things are not always so easy to find. Thankfully you found our ad while you were doing something else (omg that line just made me go "HUH?" when I first read it)and decided to check out a potential new coffee experience for yourself.

"Wow".  I thought to myself.  They are either deluded or confident -maybe that's where their name came from - "Coffee Fool", which could mean either a fool for coffee, or they're foolish enough to claim their product is heads above the rest.  I perused the flavors and was drawn in by their "Coconut Dreams".  The description reads "Only for those who would be quite at home, shipwrecked on a paradise island with enough coconut trees to last a lifetime" .  They must know about my secret fantasy.

When I lived in Madison, CT and went to the Beanery, I would always get their coconut coffee when they had it.  OMG...if you have not tried coconut + coffee, you are missing out, I kid you not.  Amazing nutty flavor with a hint of the tropics. Since the Beanery doesn't sell their beans online,   I decided to try a bag of Coffee Fool's  "Coconut Dreams" - what do I have to lose but a few bucks?  Well, I lost more than a few bucks, because one bag, and I was hopelessly hooked.  Just like Salazon ruined ANY other kind of chocolate for me, Coffee Fool ruined any other kinda bean.  They are the best.  Everything they claim is true, and zomg, their coffee flavors are the bomb.  My favorite is "Snoodle-Doodle" which has a hint of cinnamon, coconut, hazelnut in it, three of my favorite coffee-ish things.  Everything they claim is true.  I have never had better coffee in my life, and believe me, I've had a LOT of different coffee.  It's fresh, aromatic, flavorful, NEVER bitter, acidy, or metallic.  Drinking any coffee by Coffee Fool makes me smile, just like eating Salazon chocolate.

Yes, it's a tad pricey, but not overpriced.  The quality is amazing, the coffee definitely worth it, so I will induge myself.  It's not like I indulge myself with jewelry, plastic surgery, clothes, shoes...it's just two simple things - chocolate and coffee - I will not compromise quality, and I am willing to pay a bit more for something I like, because I am worth it.

What are your indulgences?