Coffee Woes

The best coffee I have ever bought and made at home was Community Coffee, Medium Roast. It is an awesome tasting coffee. Very rich, but it does not bite. Community Coffee is from New Orleans, which makes it a great coffee. Community Coffee costs a bit more than some of the other kinds, but it's quality is so surpassing that I do not mind. I got a free travel mug from Community Coffee a few weeks ago. I like that. I like their coffee. I do not like those other mainline coffee brands. Folgers and Maxwell House taste like chemicals to me. I don't know why. But last week in Wal-Mart (home of bargains!) of all places, I found that my precious Community Coffee had shot up in price... by a couple of dollars. A bag of Community Coffee is not even an entire pound. It was now up close to $5. This is compared to a can of Folgers or Maxwell House for $2 or $3. So I figured I'd go to my friendly neighborhood grocer where I have been buying Community Coffee for years. It's bounced up in price there as well! I relented and bought one of those other brands. I've now made my way through a can of Folgers. Shiver. I used to look forward to making coffee every morning, but now I just do it out of habit. No joy at all. Even with Hazelnut Creamer, it's not as good as it was. Then I ran out of Folgers. This is a crisis, people. Searching through the cabinet I saw a small can. I had faint memories of the contents of that can, and picked it up. Hmm... Vanilla Hazelnut flavored coffee. Well... it is coffee. It has been opened, but there's still some in there. This is left over from Christmas. I fell to my knees and began to weep. Has it really come to this? A tiny can of 6 month old coffee that's been opened and is flavored? Oh how the mighty have fallen. I placed the old stale coffee in the filter, closed the machine, poured in the water, and began to wait. I feel so deprived ... so desperate...so dirty. I gulped down the coffee-like substance and made a vow that I would so live that my children would never have to lower themselves to this. "As God as my witness....as God as my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never lack coffee again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God as my witness, I'll never lack coffee again." --Scarlett O'Hara, Gone With The Wind (Adapted)