Krankies Coffee

   I have a list of topics I’m going to write about, but I figured I would touch on this since I’m sitting here. You say, sitting here? Where is here?

   Krankies. To which my friends would reply, yes you are sometimes cranky, but what does that have to do with anything?

   Krankies Coffee. In Winston-Salem, NC.

   My friend Andrew Viator is a massive connoisseur of coffee. He’s a connoisseur of other things, but that isn’t necessary for this posting (as Andrew sighs in relief).

   Andrew is a good friend from my days of Southeastern University. He always attempted to persuade me in the gift of Starbucks. I would politely decline his advances, well, sort of politely. But Andrew planted the seed. Or the bean. What have you.

   Fast forward several years and we (with our spouses) went to Washington, D.C. While there we visited Ebenezer’s and Tryst. Tryst is where Andrew introduced me to the Triple Ristretto. The gift to espresso drinkers everywhere.

   You might say what does any of this have to do with anything. Nothing to be exact. But life isn’t exact. In the details you now know that Andrew converted me to real coffee. It just took years to ferment.

   I started drinking coffee in high school. It took tremendous amounts of cream and sugar. In college I was able to wean out the sugar. After college I removed the cream and haven’t look back.

   I don’t look down on those that still require it, but I will say you miss the integrity of the taste. It is an acquired taste. I tried it when I was young because my dad drank coffee every morning. I always wanted to be like my dad (that hasn’t changed much), so I tried it, but just couldn’t do it. I didn’t give up and finally figured out it didn’t need anything added. And here I am today.

   But even that makes me think about how it took diluting something before I could truly enjoy it. I finally got to the true art of coffee, but it took me starting with so many additives. Those additives I thought were making it taste better, but instead it was just making it taste different. I wish I had been able to appreciate it as it was, without distorting it. In all things, see things as they are and don’t add to it. You can’t risk the integrity because of personal pleasure or preference.

   It’s easy to read something or look at something and take from it what you may. But sometimes you have to look a little longer at a picture to figure out why it is beautiful to the one who captured it. If I hadn’t taken the time to sit here and write this I wouldn’t have known that Andrew built some of the tables in Krankies and some of the shelves. He didn’t tell me until I had been here a little while.

   So grab a cup of coffee or whatever drink you enjoy, slow down for a little while, and find something you’ve overlooked or added. Take it away and look at the raw form. You never know what will enlighten you when you least expect it.