The Will to be True Blog

I don’t know about anyone else but I have always thought about the 15 minutes of fame.  How would that happen?  I definitely wanted that 15 minutes.  Would I be a character in a movie?  How about a part on TV or even my own show?  Write a book? Deliver the keynote address at a large function?  Take a walk and have everyone pass me and say hi because they know me?

All of those things happened.  Sure I was almost famous but the excitement which I thought would come with any one of the above activities was nothing compared to the excitement I felt at having a coffee name after me.

My local coffee bistro was a godsend when I moved away from the fast paced city of Toronto.  I was such a faithful customer to certain coffee shops that I never actually had to order.  My morning Starbucks Vente Latte, 140* with extra foam was started  as soon as I stepped off the streetcar across the road from the coffee shop.  By the time I got to cash, it was done and waiting for me.  Great service!

My evening latte was made by a young man who made the perfect 142* extra foamy at Second cup in Dufferin Mall.  Yum….

When I needed to reduce my milk intake, the owner/manager, at the on-site  Second cup located in my hospital,  helped  me decided on the big switch to the Americano.   I learned that it was a drink made originally  for Americans in Italy.  Don’t quote me here but I think that Americans couldn’t handle the taste of the espresso.  Water was added to the single or double shots to tone it down.  I admit that I never liked the  short  espresso straight but I love it now if it has two shots dumped in hot water with a little half and half cream added.  Not too much caffeine and good taste.  It turned out to be the perfect drink for me.  I only had one problem.  I needed kick-ass taste and punted caffeine. 

 I can tell you that moving to a small town which didn’t seem to have a coffee shop open 16 hours a day was almost frightening.  Where would I get my coffee?  I bought several machines.  I even thought of going back to my original loves, Kenya or Caramelo coffee. The machines were only meant to be a stop gap until I could scout out an espresso bar.  Found it!   

Over the next four years, with the help of the owner-barista, we worked out a great espresso taste once I got used the difference  in beans.  Where the beans are bought and roasted makes a huge difference in taste. Groundswell has a terrific roaster.

Now, instead of running the water through short, it is run through long, extra long, so long that I don’t even need to add water to a large cup.  Voila, it is the perfect coffee for me and apparently others.  My barista informed me this week that someone called in and ordered a ‘judith’.  I felt an excitement akin to the day when a client called me the ‘breast whisperer’ for my work with breastfeeding mothers.  I knew that delightful lady and her little baby.  I took her words as a compliment to my work as a lactation consultant. 

 The lady who ordered the espresso has never met me.  Now I feel ‘almost famous’.