How I Learned to Stop Coffee and Love Green Tea

A semi-secret: I gave up coffee for Lent. Going in, it was a bit of a scary sacrifice. I didn't say much about it to friends or family because I was afraid I'd jinx myself. I knew it was going to be tough, and previous attempts to go coffee free for a time had ended in failure.

But I did it. Starting with the Ash Wednesday fast day probably helped--what are a few more symptoms on a day when you're already going through some sacrificial deprivation?

I knew there was no way I could manage without a semi substitute, so Ash Wednesday morning after church, I stopped (ashy forehead and all) and bought a box of green teabags. I knew it wouldn't be great tea, but I figured it'd do until I could pick up some loose leaf. I brewed some and sipped it resolutely, steeling myself for 40 long days in the coffee desert.

And then along the way, a funny thing happened. Instead of green tea being a major sacrifice--a pathetic coffee alternative--I found myself surprised by the beauty and subtlety and delicate nuances of the stuff: Japanese green tea, particularly, and sencha specifically, though not exclusively (I like bancha, and I also discovered genmaicha, which includes toasted rice with green tea--IT IS SO GOOD). Here's a good run-down of the basic types: Types of Japanese Green Tea.

In some ways, tea is far simpler than coffee: pour hot (but not too hot) water over the leaves, strain in some way after enough time has passed. No equipment involved, really. On the other hand, there are so many *layers* to brewing green tea. For instance, most teas can be steeped not once, but many times, and each steeping has its own character. To my taste, the first steeping can be a bit edgy and brash, a wake-up. The second (my favorite) is super fast: the leaves are awake and don't require much more than a rinse, and the flavor is full. Depending on the tea, it can be almost brothy: richly vegetable, almost a little seaweedy. For the third steeping, I let the water sit a good while, and it tends to be sweeter than the first to, sometimes startlingly so, lingering on the tongue.

I picked up an itty bitty baby Japanese teapot (called a kyusu) so I can make little cups, running quickly through three steepings (or more) and then starting again. The nicer kyusus are beautiful works of art, made of unglazed clay which requires a bit of care...I'll work up to one, perhaps, but for now, I'm very much enjoying this little guy. At work I just use a Pyrex measuring cup and pour through a tea strainer, but...there's a certain something to doing things in a fancy way, at least some of the time.

My little blue kyusu

I'm most certainly not done with coffee, but I'm actually not yet back to it. I had a cup on Easter Sunday. It seemed the thing to do. But the next day I got up, eyed the coffee and then my bag of green tea, and it was the tea that made my mouth water. So I shrugged, put the kettle on, and got down to business.

There's a lesson in all this, I suppose: when we are willing to let go, sometimes we may find ourselves unexpectedly blessed. I am grateful.

NaNoWroMo 2013: Week Three Update

The post-it note's text (At some point, inertia takes over) was actually for another purpose entirely, but I thought it kinda fit, so I left it on the desk.

Week Three. Somewhere around 34000 words. 138 pages into my composition book.

I'm doing better than Week Two, mostly because I've accepted the fact that the honeymoon is over, and the best way to make progress is to strap myself in my highchair (metaphorically speaking) and not let me up until I've written for an hour or three pages or whatever my current goal is, no matter how much I scream and cry and sulk (metaphorically speaking). (Mostly.)

Going to a coffee house or some such thing can be helpful, since I have no option for walking over to stare at the computer every thirty seconds. However, this has its own set of drawbacks. Those of you who follow me on twitter (eliz_herreid) witnessed my mini-meltdown over coffee house lighting and wobbly tables.

The excuses we can come up with, no? But life goes on. This morning I gritted my teeth and sat down at the coffee-house-down-the-street and wrote about a thousand words despite funky shadows, a napkin-propped table, and giant sucking plot holes.

Pretty sure I'll make 50k this year. Whether I'll make something of this story, however, remains to be seen.

Repeat after me: this is just a first draft. This is just a first draft. This is just a FIRST draft.

Other Stuff I Like: Klean Kanteen 16 oz. Insulated

I realize this is out of my usual scope, but caffeine addiction seems to go side-by-side with writing material obsession, no? So here we are.

Not long after the new year, I acquired an insulated 16 oz. Klean Kanteen. This is a heavy-duty stainless steel double-walled vacuum insulated tumbler. Now that I've spent over six months putting it through the wringer, I feel qualified to share my experience.

NOTE: Keep in mind that this has been in (rough) daily use for pretty much that whole period, so this is not your usual pristine review model.

You can get these with a variety of different caps and lids. When I ordered mine, I opted for a "coffee set" that came with both a solid, leakproof loop cap and a sippy "cafe" cap.

Left: loop cap Right: cafe cap

The loop cap is lined with steel, so no plasticky flavors in your beverage. Any dust and gunk is my own, not Klean Kanteen provided.

I use both caps on a daily basis. Typically, I'll make my coffee in the morning and put on the loop cap for the journey to work, so I can toss the bottle around without worrying about spillage. I carry the cafe cap in my lunch bag and switch to that once I get to work, enabling me to sip without having to fiddle with the lid each time. Now...I realize there are fancy caps that have press and seal gadgets so you can sip and then close them. However, a) I am the queen of forgetting a dirty coffee cup somewhere on Friday and not getting around to cleaning it until later, and some of those cups require a mechanical engineering degree to disassemble for cleaning and reassemble, and b) the more parts there are, the more likely it is something will break or go missing. I love the simplicity of the Klean Kanteens.

Another note: if for any reason a cap wears out or gets lost, Klean Kanteen sells replacements.

As a bonus of sorts, the cafe cap resembles a certain Star Trek character. Thanks to Michael Clemens for the meme image made after my initial comment.

Speaking of cleaning, there's a reason for the Klean in Klean Kanteen. Everything about these is easy to get to and scrub. There are no hard corners--even on the cap threads--or places where crud can build up. A bottle brush and possibly an occasional vinegar and baking soda treatment is all you need to keep them sparkly.

Close-up of rounded threads

The cafe cap also comes apart in two pieces to make it easier to clean.

Bonus feature: Although I didn't buy it for this purpose, I quickly discovered these fit in a standard bicycle bottle cage!

Considering I've spent years trying to figure out convenient ways to bring coffee to work when on the bike, this makes me extremely happy.

So...summation of the pros:

1. Easy to clean.

2. Choice of lids (flexibility), which are easy to replace if lost or broken.

3. Fits in bike bottle cage.

4. Customer Service! The Klean Kanteen people obviously feel passionate about their products and stand behind them all the way. When I ordered my first Kanteen, I was a little concerned to discover it made a light rattling noise if shaken (which I typically do to check coffee level, for those wondering why I'd be shaking my cup). I wasn't sure what this meant, so I wrote to their customer service. I got a rapid and friendly response explaining the possible causes, and offering a replacement if I felt it warranted. I ended up accepting the replacement, if only for my own peace of mind. A few photos later, they let me know the new Kanteen was in the mail, and that I could keep the original for use or recycling. (It ended up functioning OK. This is it, in fact, so now I have two.) The experience left me pretty stunned, to be honest. That level of service is hard to come by these days.

Cons (there had to be a few):

1. I would recommend that those who use their Klean Kanteens in the bottle cage either opt for one of the brushed stainless steel models (no paint) or a less scratchy bottle cage. My poor Kanteen has developed rather more "character" than perhaps it deserves.

Scratches, paint chips, my fault...but something to be aware of.

2. The small top diameter can be an issue. It is one of the things which makes it fit so beautifully in a bottle cage, but it does mean your average tea basket won't fit, so if you (like me) like to brew from loose-leaf tea leaves now and again, you may find yourself frustrated. You also can't use an Aeropress directly into it. The Melitta cone, #2 sized version (my usual brewing method) works fine, however.

3. They're pretty pricey compared to the competition, though you *can* find sales here and there.

4. One other minor possible quibble: although coffee remains tastily temperatured until close to lunchtime, I would say overall this doesn't keep things hot and cold *quite* as long as Thermos containers. When I cooled both my old Thermos tumbler and the Kanteen with tap water and then added the same number of ice cubes to each, put the lid on them, and left overnight, the ice cubes in the Kanteen were a little smaller come morning. I don't have detailed measurements of the difference, which likely wouldn't affect normal usage, but I suppose if you spend time out in the cold or heat in the field, it's worth consideration.

Completely unsolicited, no financial interest and all that. I just think these are great products deserving of praise! I hope to add a plain, single-walled water bottle Kanteen to my arsenal at some point.

Specs (per manufacturer's site):
Capacity: 16 fluid ounces (473 ml)
Weight: 8.75 ounces (w/o cap)
Size: 7.25" H (w/o cap) x 2.9375" W
Opening diameter: 2.125” (54 mm)
18/8 food-grade stainless steel

Product page on manufacturer's website: http://www.kleankanteen.com/products/insulated/klean-kanteen-insulated-16oz.php

Kindred Spaces

(I'll get back to real blog posts eventually, I swear. I spent the early part of this week sick (curled up on the couch watching the first season of Downton Abbey through a semi-feverish haze), and I haven't had a chance to do much writing or picture taking or anything.)

I used to live on the other side of Olympia, WA. There's a coffee house there I really like--Mud Bay Coffee Roasters--with great, locally roasted coffee and an interesting mix of clientele. It wasn't really on my way to work, but not outrageously out of my way, and I spent many happy hours there drinking coffee and scribbling. Now, it's well out of my usual paths, and I've been coffee homeless for some time.

But(!!!) there's now a "Dancing Goats" across from the Transit Center in Lacey, WA! I got lost on the way to a gas station about a week ago (don't ask) and ended up driving by it, thus discovering it, and then stopped in last weekend to scope it out. The parking area is easy to get in and out of, the coffee shop itself is nice and open with big tables that don't wobble (oh, how I despise a wobbly table!), and while the prices are a little steeper than some, the coffee is very good, as are the baked goods.

I've made it by a few mornings to do a little reading and writing before work. This morning, it was a good thing I now know the right light at which to turn--it was so foggy all landmarks were completely obscured, and cars and buildings seemed to float in a strange, hushed unreality. It was a relief to pull safely into the parking lot.

I walked inside, into warm, coffee scented space, where the baristas were arguing whether the fog was more likely to bring zombie pirate ghosts or evil mutant spiders. In another corner, a group of guys were discussing my favorite bike trail. Over the table where I sat, there was a big, beautiful photo of a yellow rose--my favorite flower. Taken all together, it made me want to laugh out loud...because I do believe I've found my new early morning scribbling home.

And that's a wonderful feeling.

First Morning Bike Commute Complete

Here's hoping the ride home goes as smoothly!

Update Just to Update: Self-Derision and Hot Coffee Edition

Update Just To Update: Caffeine, Gadgetry, and Some Final NaNoWriMo Thoughts

1. Ya-hooo!

In my young Air Force days, before I discovered that there was more to coffee than the lousy yucky-to-begin-with-then-cooked-for-hours-cooled-and-reheated stuff most typically available at home, I was well and truly hooked on the glowing yellow elixir that is Mountain Dew. I didn't lug around a two-liter bottle or anything, but I did go through the stuff. OK, so I realize it's essentially just very watered down orange juice with some whole buncha sugar and a plethora of unsavory and suspicious chemicals and dyes and things added to it (brominated vegetable oil, anyone?), but I loved it nonetheless. Still do, though I partake but rarely these days, if only due to the sugar content. Although Diet Mountain Dew is not the downright sacrilege that Diet Vernor's is (ohhh, Vernor's, how I love thee!) it still just isn't the same.

So the other day I was at the grocery, and they had "Mountain Dew Flashback" for sale. It's made with reg'lar sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, which made me mildly curious about any taste differences...but I still would have passed it by but for the label. I could not resist the charms of the hillbilly with the moonshine jug (don't read too far into this). I mean...come on! So I picked up a twelve pack. But the package said, "For a Limited Time Only," and I'm a sucker...so I grabbed one more. I mean, that's like a month's supply if I don't have one every day. And then I got to the cash register and after everything was rung up, the clerk said, "Oh, those are buy two twelve-packs, get two free. Do you want to run back for two more?"

Um...so if you run into me in the next few weeks and I seem particularly hyped up on sugar and caffeine...well, I probably am.

2. Nanooooo

A few (belated) final thoughts on the whole NaNoWriMo '10 experience: this was a fun year in a lot of ways, and in other ways, the toughest year ever. My writing method--pencils--was not really to blame for the struggle. Life got in the way, and I fell behind early on and struggled ever after. Let that be a lesson to me: in my case, the first week is make-it-or-break-it time. If I can get at least a day ahead by the end of the first week, I'm far more likely to have an easy go of it.

I also really struggle to write entirely at home, because it's all too easy to procrastinate when there are other distractions. If I take my notebook off to a coffee house or some such thing where there's nothing to do but write, I get lots more done. I did most of my writing at home this year, and did a lousy job of time management. Those of you who are not only able to write steadfastly at home, but write steadfastly at home despite having lots of other folks around have my admiration. I am weak.

But the writing process was a lot of fun, trying out all sorts of different pencils! I learned that paper matters a great deal--regular composition book paper is much nicer for pencils than bagasse. I liked the whole ritual of sharpening a whole platoon of pencils and using them one at a time, noting the differences as I went along. I developed some favorites for this lengthy writing: mostly the cheerful middle-of-the-road types, neither too hard nor too soft, not too smooth or too rough. I'd have to think a bit before writing full thoughts, but pencils that come to mind are the Mongol 482, the California Republic Golden Bear, the Forest Choice and the General's Cedar Pointe. (By the by, I just contributed a review of the Cedar Pointe on Pencil Revolution--check it out here!

3. Drrroooooiiid!!

I have a new toy. My contract with Verizon was up, and with all the free-with-contract-renewal deals out there right now, I decided to take the plunge into smart phonedom. Yes, I will pay out the nose for the thing over time with the added data plan, but I still have my dumb phone, so I can retreat if need be.

I got me an HTC Droid Incredible: an Android phone. I gotta say, thus far I'm impressed. Smart phones have come a long way in the last few years. Rather than just a very basic way to keep track of a calendar and check e-mail on the go, this thing is a full-fledged mini-computer. I expected to use it as a phone (well, duh...) and also for GPS (those who know me know just how much I *need* this feature!) and for basic internet checking when out and about, but didn't really think beyond those possiblities at first. But wow, there are a lot of things these little guys can do. Just a few of the things I've discovered in about a week's use:

• In addition to playing MP3s, I can have podcasts delivered directly to the phone, and then plug the thing into the car and listen as I'm driving without having to rely on radio time schedules and reception. As one example, the most local Catholic radio station is based up in Seattle, and the AM signal doesn't reach down this way much of the time, particularly after dark. But the main morning show (Sound Insight) is available in podcast form, and with Google Listen, I can listen to it on my way to and from work, pausing if I want, and not miss any of it. Ditto other interesting podcasts (Car Talk, , music programs, documentaries, stuff from EWTN, etc.). Very nifty. There are also lots of streaming radio stations, and the 3G coverage 'round here is good enough I can typically listen without a hitch while driving around.
• There's a free program called iBreviary (originally developed for iPhone as the "i" indicates) that gives you the Mass readings and ALL the major hours of the Liturgy of the Hours, and in the same translation as the books so you can follow along with other people. No, it's not a true substitute for a well-loved real book, but it's easier to carry around--I've been using it at least some of the time since I don't have to find my place, and because I always have my phone on me. It'd be very handy for travel. Way cool. The Android version is a little on the unpolished side from what I can judge from screenshots of the iPhone app, but it does the job. I like.
• OpenSudoku. Very nice Sudoku game with literally thousands of free puzzles available. Need I say more?

It makes me a little nervous that my phone is now essentially just one application on a computer that does all sorts of other things, but it does work well as a phone. We'll see how I feel about it over time. There may be such a thing as being too connected, but just as, back when I got my first cell phone, I liked the fact that I no longer had to wait at home by the phone back expecting an important call, I like not being tied to a computer. I can check e-mail, news, weather, store hours, maps...all sorta stuff wherever I am. Fascination with old technology doesn't preclude fascination with new....

Weird search terms of the week: "i hate you poems" and "poems about haters". Can't we all just get along??

What I did on summer vacation

Went to the Mt. St. Helens Bluegrass Festival in Toledo, WA. I learned a new tune--or at least, how to play it on guitar: Rickett's Hornpipe. Also got to hear some great local and semi-local bands, plus one of the greatest female vocalists in bluegrass today: Dale Ann Bradley. Her band is awesome, too, especially her current mandolin player, Chris Harris. That young man is going places.

Drank many, many cups of coffee, many of them at Mud Bay Coffee. I'm still mourning being on the other side of town, though in all other ways my move was a good thing. It was nice revisiting some, and I have plenty of their coffee beans on hand for at home.

Also had way too much junk food and such: a Dairy Queen Blizzard, chips and dip, my first hamburger and fries in a long while. And got my first ever Papa Murphy's pizza. I didn't have a working oven in the last place, so I couldn't have baked one until recently. I got The Cowboy: Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, cheese. Good stuff, though next time I want more vegetables. There will be a next time. Mmmm....pizza.

Drank about a glass and a half of wine, all told. A real party girl, I am.

Went on a couple nice long walks with thedog. I love my trail...

Read an average of a book a day. Mmmm....books. I also spent an afternoon at the library, and much time at Goodwills looking through the book section, among other things. I pretty much hit every thrift store within easy driving distance. My wild and crazy fun is not your average wild and crazy fun.

Speaking of books, I blew a Border's 33% off coupon on Connie Willis' Blackout, which I just read but want to read again before All Clear comes out, and I don't feel like getting back into the waiting game with the library hold queue, since I can't predict when I'll actually get a book that way. Now it's mine--all mine! Bwahahah....

Wrote a lot in my journal, and bits and pieces of stories. I didn't do as much writing as I intended, honestly. It's the sitting down and starting that's the hardest part. I did, however, in the last few days, finally get my writing space organized and continued working on some short stories I had set aside.

(I also reorganized my bookshelves, and at the moment I actually have more shelf space than books. This must be remedied ASAP.)

I went to The Tea Lady (awesome store, by the way, and highly recommended for anyone who even vaguely likes tea) and got some nice orange cinnamon spice tea, and the package of blueberry rooibos I've been coveting. It smells sooo good, that blueberry tea! Good stuff, too. It's a nice evening beverage, whilst reading a book. No caffeine.

Went to Shipwreck Beads and got stuff to make more earrings. That store...it's hard to even convey it in words. It's enormous, and there's nothing like being able to actually handle the beads, hold colors together for comparison. The hardest part of visiting is narrowing down what one wants to buy.

Got Avatar from Redbox and watched it. This is the first time I've turned on the TV since I switched off cable back in June, and it took me awhile to get everything going. I spent quite awhile searching for the remote before remembering that the all-in-one was Comcast's. Duh.

The movie itself? Hm. I'd heard it called Disney's Pocahantas in space, and I think that's pretty close to the mark. The story is pretty cliched. You've got the native princess who sticks up for one of the invaders even though he starts off as a misunderstanding, boorish lout. You've got the eeeevil, greedy invaders (updated by Hollywood into representatives of the military and the corporate world) who see the natives as subhuman and expendable and just want them gone so they can steal their property. Etc. That said, it's a very pretty movie. The animation and real footage are almost seamlessly combined, more so than anything I've ever seen before, and the planet (Pandora) is gorgeous.

All in all, I rolled my eyes a number of times, but still enjoyed it.

I didn't end up going anywhere very far or very out of the norm. It's not really something to do alone, I guess. It's one of the biggest problems with being perpetually single, especially if your friends and family all have families of their own. If they do think to invite you when they go on vacation, you're a third wheel, not really sure what to do with yourself, but most vacation fun stuff is really meant for couples and families, especially in the realm of the cheap and free. And yes, I am left feeling a little wistful. It's inevitable, I suppose. Another year, when I'm not so broke, I want to go back home, to visit Dad and hang out with my sister and visit my old haunts and break more out of my day to day.

But for what it was, it was a very successful vacation.