I always hated coffee. I fell in love with it when I moved to Rome.

For this post, I looked through all the pictures of the last 3 years I took with my different camera phones and here is a huuuge slidehow [And those are not all…so there might be another coffee post coming at some point!] especially dedicated to ALL coffee lovers out there and especially my Indonesian fellow @steemsugars @macchiata [her name says it all!!!] and @hananan [see girl? I did it! Coffee is Love and Love is Coffee!] !

But let me take it from the start.

My Mom is a notorious coffee lover. And my grandma. Ok, all of my family always loved coffee. Wait, I think all Greeks do. And French. And Italian. And…well EVERYONE in the World! But I was used to my own ways – I always had milk in the morning, with cocoa and honey, and preferably a fancy straw. Oh yes, until I was 27 years old I wasn’t drinking coffee and hadn’t had coffee EVER. And until my 32 I wasn’t smoking. But at least I quit smoking – I don’t think I’m quitting coffee though, even though I still like milk a lot! Only for one year and something I was a smoker and a coffee drinker, but I decided to cut the bad habit… ;)

So, back to my Mom…who was making filter coffee every morning and this is how I would wake up most days. It’s not that I particularly hated the smell, but the taste…well, it wasn’t my style -and imagine that now I drink it without sugar, only with milk. [There’s a rumor, not sure if it’s scientifically proven, that psychopaths drink their coffee with no sugar…well, if that’s true, it explains a lot haha! By the way @creutzy drinks it like that too :P ]

Even though I studied in France, I didn’t start drinking coffee there –maybe because I was still quite young, or because I wasn’t really hanging out to coffee places, mostly uni or bars haha! I don’t know what was really the reason, all I know is that my love started in ROME.

They say that All Roads Lead to Rome

Well, I don’t know if that’s true, but one of them led me there for sure! And Italian coffee…espresso, cappuccino…macchiato…how can you resist? And I was resisting! For a whole year I was living in Italy I wasn’t drinking coffee…but the next 2, I fell to coffee’s arms and never left! After that I tried all kinds, including Greek and Turkish, Frappe [Greek cold shaken instant], Cappuccino freddo, freddoccino [a cold sweet beverage with a hint of coffee], latte, cortado, espresso (less than other types to be honest –too strong for my taste!), filter, instant… Lately at home I’m drinking hot instant with milk or Greek coffee (with milk also, even though a lot of people think it’s weird) and when I’m out, depending on my mood, latte, cappuccino or cortado –but I also love Chai Latte…Oh wait, that’s not coffee, I shouldn’t get out of subject!

I also love brand coffees - even though some argue that they are 'unoriginal' and 'what do the Americans know about coffee' - Alright, you can't compare a pizza from Naples with Domino's, but I still like both! So yeah, I confess, I love Starbucks [which don't exist in Italy by the way, but there are in every corner in France...], and Costa [the British equivalent], and Baresso [the Danish equivalent - unfortunately getting bough now by.....--> ], and Espresso House [the Swedish equivalent buying 'our' Danish brand...] ! YES - I am THAT kind :P

A strange input here…

Even though I was never drinking coffee, and in my family no one was drinking Greek coffee specifically, I was always charmed by the theme song of the commercial of Bravo coffee - the biggest coffee brand in Greece, since 1927. I am attaching below a video from youtube with the first commercial of Bravo coffee from 1993, when I was a kid, listening to this amazing melody... - the quality is not very good, but the newer ones are not as good as this one. ‘Bravo’ in Greek as well as in Italian, means ‘Excellent’. By the end of the commercial the line says: ‘We live in the most beautiful country in the World, we drink our coffee Greek’ and then ‘Bravo! This is a proper coffee!’. My eyes always become watery somehow every time I watch this commercial, which is almost never now since it’s really old. Unless I go online like now ;) I never tried it before until very recently (I was more into another Greek coffee brand) but I really love and I'm going to get a few packs in my hand luggage coming back to Denmark from Greece after Christmas :D

Doing some research on the internet about coffee (and coffee lovers) I found out this website : http://www.ncausa.org/
It's the homepage of the National Coffee Association (yes,that's a thing!), founded in the United States in ...1911!!! The best coffee I found so far especially for coffee lovers, with facts and history, with memberships, events, webinars and a special section about coffee&health - simply, amazing!

Coffee...

Initially a bush and then a delicious beverage, usually with an Italian name:
Cappuccino because it looks like a monk (=cappuccino in Italian) and espresso which means fast!
Italy though, and France, and whole Europe came very late into the coffee game since it first started in Ethiopia -Today, almost half of the world's coffee production is in...can you guess? Oh well...Columbia and Brazil! :D

Coffee on Instagram

Even though it's not a very popular tag here on Steemit, under 700 posts, coffee seems to break instagram since right now there are more than 80 MILLION posts tagged coffee -and that's only 'coffee', not 'coffeelover' or a gazillion others... I didn't expect it to beat 'chocolate', that has merely 54 million, but I did expect to come after 'love' (with more than 1 BILLION 200 million posts!!!) and even 'Christmas' (with almost 100 millions). Still wow though ;)

Last but not least: A crypto idea we had with @creutzy

Yes, two cups because now I'm talking for us both! :P
I'm so excited with coffee and steem, and crypto in general, that I was thinking how I can put all that together! I suggested a cryptocurrency based coffee place here in Copenhagen, but @creutzy is sceptical... I would appreciate @sndbox 's opinion on that since you guys are...IN the business!!! [not of coffee, of crypto haha!]
Don't get me wrong, he does share my passion, he just doesn't know how something like this would be feasible - but whatever the way, I sure wanna try it!!!!

I hope you liked this post and that you are now craving for a big cup of coffee! It's almost morning in Europe, so good morning everyone and Enjoy your coffee!!!

Do you like coffee? Share some coffee stories!

And don't forget to smile!

Yours

Mean Mommy