Desperate Brew

I like my title.  Someone should write a hard-boiled noir to go with it.

Gear Patrol is one of those snob sites that kind of annoy me, but once in a while they come up with something interesting.  This is coffee week or something which includes this evaluation of the "best" instant coffees.  Instant coffee is generally terrible, as the GP guy points out.  I keep instant on hand, though, because it can be transported easily, it stores well, and it beats a snowbank -- as my mom used to say -- when you are desperate for a fix.  Hence, desperate brew.

I consider coffee a survival essential -- not so much because we need it to live but because it is one of the simple, consistent pleasures I enjoy that makes life worth living.  And simple, one might even say, essential pleasures, are not to be disparaged when preparing to endure difficult times.

Not everybody likes or needs coffee.  Not all coffee-drinkers derive the same joy from it that I do.  Some people just drink a cup out of habit to get started in the morning.  For them, missing a cup might be headache-inducing, but otherwise not a big deal.  Most everyone, though, has some little "essential luxury" they would really miss.  It might be tea.  It might be chocolate or butterscotch.  It might be a cigar or a pipe or a bourbon.  It might be a spice like cinnamon or rosemary or chile powder.  It might also be journaling or drawing.  Whatever small thing that a person enjoys should not be dismissed as non-essential because these things are part of our identity, of what we are.

Don't ignore those things.  There will be days when everything else has gone wrong, but you can still have your little cup of joy.