Frank J. Buchman

Cowboy • Horseman • Writer

Have Another Cup Of Coffee And Go

What happened to the free cup of coffee? For that matter, where’s that nickel coffee?

Unbelievable is the cost of a cup of coffee these days. Actually, ground coffee in a can isn’t too high priced, but just try buying a cupful in a public place and cost skyrockets.


Free coffee was always available for 33 years at our family’s grocery store. Likewise, many elevators, farm stores and other businesses traditionally offered a complimentary cup for patrons. Typically, coffee came at no additional charge with 90-cent meals at cafes, when we were growing up. Charge for a cup during morning break was a nickel.

Oh, how times have changed. We about fainted when we asked for a cup of coffee at a recent farm show, and the waitress said $2.50. It shocks us, but many people are used to paying a dollar or more. We’ve even heard of some paying $6-plus a cup.

We like coffee. It runs in our genes. Some call it an addiction, and we do drink more than people-in-the-know say we should. Doctors contend coffee dehydrates the body, makes one hyper, increases blood pressure and can clog arteries, leading to heart ailment.

Yet, there are many stories of people who were lifelong coffee drinkers and lived to be quite old, even a century or more. They’d always drink coffee, even on the hottest days, and never plain water. We haven’t heard of coffee causing cancer or other such dreaded diseases. Coffee’s caffeine gives us energy, and we want a cup if we go without for a day.

Make ours black, no cream, no sugar or none of those other modern-day additives, and the blacker the better. It can be hot, iced, lukewarm or cold. We drink the instant kind without rebuttal, and that caffeine-free is better than none, but we prefer the real thing.

There are those who claim late coffee keeps them awake at night, but for us a before-bed cup makes better dreams. There was a period when coffee, lots of the very strong kind, would give us a tinge of heartburn. No more. Just give us another cup of the same.

On occasion, when we decided it might be harmful to our health, or we wanted to give up something for Lent, we’ve quit coffee. We’ve gone without for many months, but we always wanted a cup. After proving we can do without, we start drinking again. We might abstain once-in-a-blue-moon, but generally we enjoy every cup to the last drop.

Surely in the Old Testament, Esther (1:8) was referring to coffee: “And the drinking was according to the law that they should do according to every man’s pleasure.” Yet, much more important matter than a coffee cup involved in Psalms 116:13: “I will take
the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.”

+++ALLELUIA+++

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