I'll share my uninteresting beverage habit with you. Every morning I get up, stumble into the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee. During the warmer times of year I like to sit on my back deck and just enjoy the silent dawn of a new day for a while before gearing up for work. No newspaper, no radio or TV. Just enjoy God's gift. I honestly can't explain why I drink coffee because it doesn't really taste good; in fact, it tastes pretty bad. For some reason, though, I've been drinking it since I was a kid, and I generally drink at least three or four cups a day.
 -Bill Hamilton, Assist. Prof. of Physical Education
A cup of coffee before my morning workout at home. Then breakfast, and then a large cup of tea to take to my office.
-Paul Smith, Assoc. Prof. of Business
I usually have a glass of orange juice at about 5:30 a.m. Sometimes I will have a cup of hot chocolate or a cup of green tea in addition to, or instead of, the orange juice. I usually have cereal and milk as well. I have never worried about what it does for me.
-Larry Stern, Professor of Political Science
Each morning my husband, Bob (the "old" lifeguard for the MHC pool), rises and goes to the kitchen to fix our coffee and brings it to me with the morning paper. We sit in relative quiet, enjoying the morning together. Now, I am capable of fixing a pretty good cup of coffee, but when Bob is out of town and coffee is my chore, it just doesn't taste as good. I think it's because he adds that extra little spice to it called love. And, by the way, two cups each is our limit for the day. Our favorite coffee? Costa Rican that our surfer son sends us after he returns from one of his forays into the surfing wilds! Good luck with your article.
-Cornelia Wood, Adjunct Professor of Spec. Ed.
Reliv Nutritional products (www.reliv.com): a scoop of CLASSIC, with a 1/2 scoop of INNERGIZER, with a 1/2 scoop of FIBRESTORE all mixed and shaken with any juice! (I prefer mango juice.)
-Kevin Barnette, Assistant Head Coach, Football
My morning beverage is Folgers Light. When I wake up every morning my coffee is the first thing that I fix. I asked for a Bun Coffee Machine for Christmas so that my coffee would brew quicker and I wouldn't have to wait for it. My husband could tell you what I'm like without my coffee in the mornings, but I will tell you what it means to me. What I enjoy most about my coffee is the satisfaction and comfort that it restores in me for waking up. My coffee helps me to begin the day with a smile instead of frown!!
-Debra Huff, Campus Ministry Associate
I'm in the office most days around 7:30 a.m., so a good cup of coffee is always needed. I have a Mr. Coffee in the office and a small refrigerator to store bottled water. I have the perfect routine worked out to make a pot of coffee with a half-liter bottle of water. Just enough of my personal coffee blend (I could tell you about it, but then I'd have to kill you!) and one half-liter water bottle. Coffee's done in 5 minutes, it goes in my thermos, and I'm off to class - coffee to go.
-Doug Gordon, Assoc. Professor of Music
I make Yerba Mate every morning. By brother orders it online from Argentina, and I often get bags of it as a present becaues I love it (It is just loos leaves, so I make it in a tea press with boiled water.) I recently discovered that you can by kilos of it from Earth Fare. It is healthy, wakes me up in the morning, and doesn't make me jittery like coffe does!
Kate Prichard, Lifeworks
I am happy to report that one very good and strong cup of coffee does the trick. It helps relieve the morning fog.
-Faryl Orlinsky, Academic Coordinator - Upward Bound
I like coffee with milk in it. I grind the coffee grounds and brew the coffee first thing before I brush my teeth. I then pour the coffee and put milk in it and wait to drink it for 20 minutes to allow it to cool down to almost room temp. As I drink my coffee in the car on the way to work I expect it to wake my brain up enough so that I can talk coherently without mixing up words.
-Joy VanDervort-Sneed, Adjunct Prof. of Biology
I always have two or three cups of coffee, hot and with nothing in, every morning. One cup with my morning devotion, and one cup with the news.
-Dean Goforth, Dean of Student Life
I absolutely depend on my morning coffee--and I guess I have to as I typically begin my day at 4:00 a.m. I freshly grind my whole-bean Arabica coffee and set it up in the pot the night before. I switch it on first thing after stumbling out of bed. After it's brewed I drink two large ice-cooled cups in fairly quick succession. Then--BLASTOFF--I'm ready for a great, action-packed day!
-Ted Berzinski, Assist. Prof. of Business
One cup of coffee that I make at home... just like it and will get a caffeine headache if I don't drink it.
-Jennifer Nance, Women's Basketball Coach
Here's what I have to say about my "morning beverage": Truly, madly, deeply--that's how I care about my first (and usually only) cup of hot brew, that fresh cup of steaming hot and creamy coffee, made from fresh-ground and dark-roasted oily beans that I hand grind and then send through the drip coffee-maker first thing every morning. I buy my beans locally, and they're as politically correct as a bean could be--shade grown, fair trade, and organic. And I'm happy that they are--though my main reason for making my brew first priority every morning goes beyond the drink's political value. Coffee is also, of course, a caffeinated beverage...since I drink mine 1/2-caf--1/2-decaf; it's obviously not just the caffeine that I'm going for. No, it's more than that. It's about quality, and not just any coffee measures up. It's the smell, from grinding to brewing to sipping; it's the inimitable taste, stout, deep, dark, full, earthy, almost bitter, though with cream, rounded smoothie; and it's the ritual, a ritual that patterns my mornings, that stimulates my senses, that prepares me for the day, that links me to humans throughout history and around the world through this ubiquitous yet extraordinary beverage. To begin every morning with my coffee experience is to be aware of the fullness of life, one cup at a time!
-Virginia Bower, Assist. Prof. of English
Here is my morning routine, with beverage. I go to the YMCA every morning at 5:30am. They provide free coffee! As I leave the YMCA at 6:30a.m. I take a small cup of coffee, 1/2 regular, 1/2 decaf. And head home. When I get home I prepare, one cup at a time, a mix of 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf. Usually I only drink about 3-4 cups. After about 9AM I only drink water. Along with the coffee I read the local newspaper, feed my two dogs, and watch the financial report on MSNBC. I jump between MSNBC, CNN, and Good Morning America. Reading the newspaper I skim the front page, and then go right to the Editorial page. Then, I go to the comics; my favorites are Zits, Non Sequitur, Baby Blues, Rex Morgan, and Mary Worth. (I only read those.) Finally, I read the weather. All during this I am sipping my coffee.
-Gregory A. Clemons, Assoc. Prof. of Spanish
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