My New Pick-me-up: Half Caff Coffee

I am a coffee lover.  I think its genetic.  Everyone in my family drinks coffee.  When I was little, my mom used to let me act like I was a "big girl" and let me have a mug of milk with a splash of coffee.  Family dinner would end with dessert, games and coffee.  I wouldn't have made it through college without the large amounts of coffee I consumed, either for comfort or as a study companion.  For the 3 years that I worked nights, coffee was my best friend.  Then, even when working days, my morning and afternoon boosts came from my dear old friend coffee.  There's just something about the aroma of the beans, and the warmth and smoothness of a good cup of coffee that makes me feel good.

Then, came pregnancy.

For my first trimester, I gave it up, cold turkey.  It was hard, but my all-day morning sickness actually helped me.  During my second trimester, I started allowing myself half a cup per day at work if I felt like it.  (Because of the three months without it, I actually didn't crave coffee as much as before.)  Now, in my third trimester, I allow myself to have a regular sized cup a few times per week, but often choose to dilute my cup with half regular and half decaf.  Half and half was easy to do at work, where I could get my own from the gigantic carafe in the cafeteria... but I feel like a jerk in the drive through at Dunkin Donuts, (who pride themselves on the simplicity of ordering their coffee so much that it was the basis for a marketing campaign), asking for the half and half mix.  I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world ordering such a thing, but I still felt persnickety.

Now at home on leave, I was wondering how I could satisfy my coffee cravings.  I have a big coffee maker, and making just 2 cups doesn't feel right, it's too easy to over-make and over-consume.  (It's also kind of a pain in the butt, cleaning the grinder and the pot just for 2 cups...).  I was also not about to buy one bag of regular and one bag of decaf to make my own mix.  Then, I discovered the pre-packaged half-caff options at the grocery store.

Folgers and Maxwell House have both developed Half-Caff coffees ready to go.  I was hesitant at first, since I usually buy whole bean coffee, and can be a coffee snob at times.  I was worried that it wouldn't be full bodied enough, or that it would be too acidic, or somehow miss that je ne sais quoi... but I was pleasantly surprised!!

I ended up with the Folgers brand after consulting my mom, (she knows a thing or two about good coffee).  So far, very good.  It has passed three separate taste tests.  More importantly, I can again enjoy my old companion, one or two perfect cups at a time.