Saturday Morning Fix

Weekends should be extended sleeping time but I always wake up at 4:30 am. Spent the early morning walking at the park square then I bought pandesal for mom’s breakfast. Envisioning a hot mug of coffee while walking.

Yes, lately I started drinking coffee again with a small packet of Stevia as sweetener. Nothing fancy there but just a teaspoonful of the instant variety. I don’t even like coffee creamer. In all the years that Starbucks has been here, I’ve only visited it once when my friends and I had lunch at Sweet Sensation,then transferred to Starbucks to have coffee, I didn’t order anything but watched my friends enjoying their latté, mocha and espresso. Anything with coffee creamer tastes like milk to me. I don’t drink milk, I neither eat white chocolate.

There is something wonderful about drinking coffee in your favourite mug instead of the disposable variety they use at coffee shops. Watching the world go by, waiting for the sunrise while staying at the garden, precious minutes of ‘alone time’ while our three doggies who stay outside our grills hover nearby. Oh, but I was able to trim our fukien tea plants. Nice touch, I say. Since it is almost summer, our carabao grass is growing slowly but my few pots of Amazon lilies are flowering again. Such heady scent.

I remember our trips to Caleruega several years ago. They usually serve kape barako, a variety grown locally here. I miss it. It’s the variation of the liberica variety. Traditionally, it is served either black or sweetened with muscovado sugar. The recent rise of local shops serving other varieties has led to low consumption of it although there are still coffee shops that serve it. It was popular with the older generation.

Coffee anyone?

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Lotsa’ Coffee

For the first time, I prepared two cups of the brew early this morning. I was awake at 5am and was at the garden before 6am. I prepared a cup with just a little sugar to go with it. I put it in a small foot  stool near where I was weeding. Two of our naughty cats played around and the plastic stool toppled on the grass.  Oh my!

I have to go back in the kitchen to prepare another cup and this time, I put it on top of our concrete garden table covered by a glass coaster. I don’t drink coffee every day except when I am in the garden this early and there is a morning breeze that plays with the leaves in the garden making the dry ones fall to the ground. Every day I have to sweep the yard. We have a small compost pit at the farthest corner of the garden and all the leaves that I gather are placed there to rot.  This soil mix is one of the best to use when you are replanting.

Speaking of coffee, mom can’t get by without her early morning fix. Sometimes she doesn’t even eat breakfast as long as she has coffee prepared.  We used to let her prepare her own but in the last few months, either the coffee is too much, the sugar too little and she ends up with an unpalatable cup. So what Josef suggested was for us to buy her three-in-one sachets complete with sugar, cream and of course coffee. These instant coffee packets are flavored in caramel. mocha, hazelnut, brown coffee etc. They come in different brands. Problem solved. All you need is to pour hot water and voila, it’s done.

Are you a coffee drinker or a tea lover? I am one of both. I’ve tried turmeric tea yesterday. They say it is good to boost immunity.

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