A few cups of coffee

My history with coffee has had its ups and downs. As a child I always remember that there was a routine that would be fulfilled one day after another: I would get up, ask my mom's blessing, go to the bathroom to wash my eyes, and then sit at the dining room table waiting for my mother to bring me a cup of sweet, intense, black coffee.

There wasn't a day when I didn't drink that cup of coffee at the beginning of the day, then there would be about three more cups, one at mid-morning, another in the afternoon when I came home from school, and the last one at about seven o'clock at night. On holidays my mother always gave us a cup of coffee with milk in the middle of the afternoon, accompanied with a piece of homemade biscotti.

At that time of my early childhood I was addicted to coffee, I learned this when I was twelve years old. For health reasons I had to move to my grandmother's house, where I stayed for almost three years. I had started high school and left home very early in order to get to school on time. Neither my aunt nor my grandmother prepared coffee before I left, so I went to school without that first cup of coffee of the day

Soon after I began to feel strong headaches, I did not know it then but it was the abstinence from coffee. That experience helped me to give up the habit of drinking coffee in the mornings.

Another time when I drank a lot of coffee was at the end of high school and during college. Many nights I would meet with friends to study away from home, usually in a public square. Before leaving home I would take a big thermos of black coffee with me, and we would drink it in about three or four hours, which was the time it took us to study.

But at that time I didn't feel that I was addicted to coffee, I didn't need it as much as the time I lived at my grandmother's house. If I drank it I felt good, lively, it scared me a little sleepy, but if I didn't drink it nothing happened. I never again felt headaches due to lack of caffeine.

As the years went by, my stomach became a little delicate and the doctors recommended me to moderate my coffee consumption. I had to make the decision to reduce the amount of coffee I drank, I went from six or seven cups a day to only two or three. At the beginning it was a little difficult, but step by step I was adapting to these new quantities.

Nowadays I almost always drink very little coffee, most days I only have a cup of coffee in the afternoon, sometimes black and sometimes with milk. But this is not a strict rule and there are many exceptions. If I go out with my wife we usually have one or two cups of coffee somewhere nice, this depends on how long the outing takes.

When I receive a visitor or I am in a meeting with friends, I can drink up to four cups, also depending on how long the visit or meeting takes and the type of people with whom I am meeting, I have some friends who drink a lot of coffee and others who barely drink half a cup.

Either way, I almost always try to take advantage of the opportunity to share a good cup of coffee, either talking with my wife or in a meeting with friends. That shared coffee always has a special flavor.

Thank you for your time.