According to Statistic Brain, 54% of Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee. Want to take a guess at how much is spent annually on specialty coffee in the United States?
Try $18 billion.
I was a little disturbed to learn that 65% of coffee drinkers add cream and/or sugar to their coffee. Years ago my father told me if I drank my coffee black for a week that I’d never go back to cream and/or sugar. Dad wasn’t right about everything, but he was right about that.
Coffee is an important (um, essential) part of my morning routine. Back in my ad agency days, I wrote my “four things coffee has to be.”
1. Fresh.
2. Black.
3. Strong.
4. Hot.
Speaking of “hot,” one of my former workmates used to kid me about constantly heating and re-heating my coffee in the microwave. So here’s the crazy part. I’d pour it from the pot into my cup and then put my cup in the microwave because it wasn’t hot enough. Yes, I like my coffee scalding hot. I’m not sure why.
Are you part of the 54% who drinks coffee? If so, how do you like yours?
Neil Sagebiel 
Neil, I’ll throw in with you on everything you wrote about coffee. Me too. I looked long and hard to find a coffee maker that produced and kept coffee hot enough. I settled on a Cuisinart that is now about a dozen years old. It was one of only a few that had a temperature adjustment that I could set on REALLY HOT. I like French coffee (which is really an Italian idea,) but have always found that coffee made that way cools off too much in the process. Ditto the expensive espresso maker we bought ourselves. On the other hand, away from home, Starbuck’s coffee is always incredibly hot, but, to me, without much flavorful coffee character — or seriously over-roasted.
Would you mind putting me back on your mail list for News from Floyd. It somehow disappeared after we had moved to Bothell and changed e-mail addresses.
Thanks.