After years of ordering what many would consider to be frou-frou drinks from Starbucks, I finally decided, while laying in bed last night, that I should really start making my own coffee. I mean, why not? I’ll save money and, hopefully, develop a greater appreciation of the different kinds of roasts.

My parents have always been instant coffee drinkers, which had kind of put me off of home-brewed coffee; the coffee I bought at Starbucks always tasted so much better. Not to mention the supermarkets in Hong Kong had fairly paltry selections of coffee grounds (although I can see that changing in the near future, due to the infiltration of Starbucks). I guess I never really felt an urge to brew any on my own.

For the last few weeks, however, I’ve been working at the St. Olaf IIT, and have had to be at work by 7.30 every morning. Since it’s summer, and since I’m living in a house with five friends, I’ve also been staying up fairly late every night, and as a result I’ve been incredibly tired every day at work. The solution? Caffeine.

This tiredness provided the impetus for me to invest in some coffee brewing materials. One of my housemates already had a coffee maker, so I bought some Starbucks House Blend grounds, as Starbucks has always been my favorite. However, I needed a tumbler to bring my coffee to work in the morning, and so I went to Caribou Coffee — there’s no Starbucks in Northfield — where I bought one of these. Their organic coffee also caught my eye, but they only had it in whole bean form, so I decided to go to Target and buy a coffee grinder.

After dinner tonight I ground up some organic beans, brewed them, and sipped them out of my new stainless steel tumbler, mixed with whole milk and sugar. My coffee snobbery has ballooned to a new level, and it’s only going to grow from here.