Day 19: How do you like it?

First of all, everyone welcome my friend Kirsten to Lent!Blog! Kirsten is one of my oldest friends - as kids, we lived only two blocks from one another. I'm not sure how secretive her blog identity is, so in her own words: "I'm not happy unless I'm busy. So I guess a full time government job, 2 toddlers, getting a Masters in Public Health, fixing our house, and date nights with my husband means I'm pretty darn ecstatic!" I'd also like to add that Kirsten was the first person to ever embarrass me in front of a guy. She brought the class hottie over to my house unannounced in fifth grade, and I was wearing a South Dakota farm animals shirt. (Hipsters would now pay $40 for that shirt at Urban Outfitters.)

Moving on!

I've noticed that the participants of Lent!Blog! are almost as enthusiastic about coffee as I am. So:

How do you like your coffee? Describe it to the nth degree. Aim for coffee porn.

*Alternate for non-coffee drinkers: What's your favorite non-alcoholic beverage, please still describe it in detail.

First, I drink plain black coffee about five days a week. I'm really into (as in, I can afford) Dunkin' Donuts Cinnamon Spice blend lately, but I also love to peruse Marshall's for their specialty coffee selection. I recently cleaned my coffeemaker by flushing vinegar through it and the effect has been all but life-changing.

Now let's get down to business. When it comes to what I really prefer, it's not black coffee and it doesn't come out of my kitchen in two minutes flat.

Winter: Medium soy white mocha

This is the dream drink for days when I can convince myself that $4.50 is a perfectly rational amount of money for one beverage. Skim mochas are too thin and whole milk mochas make me feel badly about myself but soy mochas are, as Goldilocks once said, juuuuust right. The one downside of this drink is that the barista will usually not give you whip cream, assuming you're lactose intolerant or worse, vegan. So you have to pony up to the drink bar and remind them that if you're paying more than a gallon's worth of gas for your morning beverage, you absolutely want it to come with whip cream. And the chocolate-covered espresso bean. And a toothy grin and a thank you.

Spring/Summer: Medium cold press, 1/2 shot white chocolate, topped with soy milk

Cold-press coffee is brewed cold, kind of like iced tea - the result is an utter lack of bitter flavor. Adding white chocolate is a good choice but if you sacrifice a 1/2 ounce of coffee for the milk, you'll be amazed at how much creamier and richer it is. Try to hold back your moan in the coffeeshop, lest you want the old man perusing Reader's Digest to ask you if you come there often.

Fall: Medium. Soy. Pumpkin. Spice. Latte.

I actually can't do this one justice. So I'm not even going to try.