One lump or two?

It's official: I am a white-trash coffee drinker.

Carrows and Dennys have some of the best damned coffee I've tasted in a long time. And this is while I've been trying desperately to find a brand of coffee at the grocery store that doesn't taste all chemically and strong enough to bowl over a loaded semi with one teensy waft of aroma.

Starbucks? No thanks. I'm not a semi. (Sorry co-worker-Patrick. I tried.) Pete's? S'ok for those times when I go to bed at 3 a.m. and get up at 6 a.m., but only one cup's worth, and it's best done while I'm still groggy so I can't taste much anyway. Don Francisco is pretty palateable, but again, I can really only do about one cup of that (ok a traveler's mug), and I'm usually forcing the last gulp or three down. There have been various others, all of a societal niche promising the best (and consequently most expensive) cup of coffee you'll ever indulge in. Ever.

And every damn one of 'em's been gross.

But the cheap stuff that run-of-the-mill, low-to-middle-income restaurants buy in bulk is heaven. And I really mean Heaven, with a capital 'H.'

Pre-gastritis, I couldn't stomach the stuff (heh, heh, I made a funny ...) Now it's all I can stomach.

At least I'm a cheap coffee-date.