let's talk about coffee

Americans are the world's largest coffee consumers and yet they (and their territories) do not grow coffee except perhaps Puerto Rico and Hawaii. While the Arabs originally drank coffee for religious purposes, the Christian priests believed it was the drink of the devil. Thanks to Pope Clement VIII who tasted the coffee, found it delicious and blessed it, Christians can now sip a cup of coffee without suffering from eternal damnation.

Coffee makes the world go round. Probably the economy too considering the number of Starbucks, Davao's own Blue Gre' and other coffee shops sprouting all over the country. I started my love affair with coffee when I was still in law school. I can still remember how we (the other part of we being my friend Weng Soriano) spent most of our midnights and dawns at the Caltex Starmart in Ecoland studying cases and preparing either for a recitation or an exam the next day---of course with a cup of Nestle coffee. In one of my work-related trips to Manila, I also remembered how I spent six hours (that's from 9PM to 3AM next day) in Seattle's Best since I had to fly to Davao the next day for my Labor exam.

Then I worked as a country analyst for one of those companies doing special reports for the South China Morning Post and Fortune Magazine where my regular work hour was 3Pm to 12midnight--although at that point sleep already eludes me until 3AM. I am lucky if I get 3-4 hours of sleep since I have to work early at 6AM. Crazy life. The only thing that sustained me was coffee.

And so these are some of the reasons why I decided to honor coffee by naming my newest blog (the other one being datelinedavao) ---coffee talk. With coffee, who knows how far this blog is going to go? Endless possibilities.

Here's to Pope Clement, without whom I would not have survived every day and every night.