Coffee is wonderful. I’m not alone in saying so. According to the National Coffee Association (this is a real thing), 62% of Americans drink coffee every day. And of those, they drink just over three cups per day on average. Use of a traditional “drip” coffee maker has declined 24% since 2015. Americans want more on-the-go options for consuming this celebrated elixir. Medium roast is America’s most popular roast.

The main thing I wanted to write about in this piece is the coffee cup. Or, the coffee mug, if you will. I became a coffee drinker in my early 20s, thanks to my now husband, who’s always had a soaring affection for the drink. Even early on, I felt that coffee tasted better when consumed from a mug. Richard agrees. Sure, you risk spilling your coffee and it doesn’t stay as hot compared to a Styrofoam cup or thermos, but it’s worth it for the taste. And there’s just something so right about a classic coffee cup. It’s perfectly round, ceramic or porcelain, and comes equipped with a perfectly comfortable appendage on the side in the form of a handle for you to rest your fingers on. I’ve noticed that some of the smaller mugs fit perfectly into my hand without needing the handle. Take our black thin mug, for instance. It’s a little worn. The black ceramic is not shiny. The inside of the cup is blue. White lettering on the side reads “Norfolk Public Library” and beneath that is a white, open book. Beneath that reads “creating a city of readers.” As I drink my coffee from the cup and read a book, I’m delighted that someone would desire to create a city of readers. I thank those throughout history (and even presently!) who have fought for public libraries. Coffee and books make a nice pair.

Other coffee mugs remind us of places we’ve been. They provide nostalgia without having to go anywhere or move around so much. I used to have a mug (I say used to – my husband had a habit for a while of taking our mugs to work or on walks to his parents’ house and never bringing them home – more on this later) I got when we visited the Bahamas on a cruise. It was really cool – it was brown and round, a little on the shorter side compared to some mugs. It had a colored map of part of the Caribbean Sea, with a compass on it and the islands painted in. Nassau and Freeport were labeled. I used to sip my black coffee out of it and was reminded of me and Richard’s honeymoon – cruising and snorkeling those beautiful waters and hearing the semi-British accents of the friendly locals there. My coffee would match the color of the mug, so it was hard to tell where one ended and the next began, kind-of like the sky and the turquoise waters of the Bahamas.

One of my current favorite mugs is a bit heavier. It’s white and relatively taller. It has painted on it the City of Norfolk and the city’s seal just above that – in blue. An old ship with four sails, floating atop the water, is within the seal. The ring of the seal has the dates in which Norfolk was known as a town (1682), a borough (1736), and a city, respectively (1845). Norfolk – my beloved home. My favorite place in the world. This mug in particular brings a lot of comfort. On the contralateral side is a humorous statement, written beneath two heads (a male and female), with a lightbulb between them – “We Put Bright Ideas to Work.” People familiar with the inner workings of the local government find this to be a bit of a joke. I prefer the side of the mug with the seal on it. Sadly, the seal is being replaced by the more modern mermaid emblem.

We’ve lost some nice mugs along the way. One was my ODU (Old Dominion University) mug. It was blue and somewhat large and tall, white on the inside. It now resides at Richard’s parents’ house. I get to see it when we go over there. Maybe coffee mugs, like coffee, are meant to be shared. We used to have old classic white porcelain mugs. Richard liked those a lot. And we lost a stout little green-tan one with a humble bouquet of flowers on the side. There was also a large white one we had at our old house; we’d won it as a prize at Dave-and-Busters (after only spending $50 on tickets and games). It had a squirrely-like outline of a human in black on it and said beside that “MUST HAVE COFFEE.” Haha. That one reminds me of the early days of me and Richard’s marriage. Fond memories.

My anatomy & physiology teacher in undergrad used to lecture while sipping out of a mug that was the face of the Looney Tunes Coyote – snout and all protruding. It was hilarious and hard for me to take him seriously whenever he’d lift the creature up to his face. The snout would point out and then up as he’d tilt the cup back to drink. I can’t remember now but maybe he was going over spinal joint movement patterns – flexion and extension. Or the function of the epiglottis.

Growing up, my father seemed to always drink out of the classic IHOP coffee cup. Do you know those? Creamy-colored, small, with dark blue lettering – “IHOP” on the side? I don’t recall my dad ever using other coffee mugs, though we had plenty of others to choose from. My parents always drank instant Folgers, made from boiling water on the stove in the kettle. And my dad did and still does plop a scoop of vanilla ice cream into his coffee cup. The sound of the whistling kettle and the freezer door opening and closing would attract the dogs to the kitchen and he’d throw a scoop of ice cream into the air for them to catch. In the cabinet, we had an old mug I really remember. It was short and round, sandy-colored. It seemed old. It had polo players painted on the side, men riding their horses. That mug reminds me of home.

My mother, who’s always been fond of the Brits, used to drink her coffee from a saucer set. I can still picture her sitting at the dining room table sipping from her small cup, that creamy layer of milk sitting atop the brewed coffee.

I look forward to my morning coffee. Some days as I fumble around in the dark, I can’t decide which mug to use. The City of Norfolk one is a favorite. I pour the black liquid from the pot into my mug, then typically zap it again in the microwave so it’s still quite hot by the time I take my first sip. I sit with the cup and talk to God, read some Scripture and hope to make sense of it. And I write as I organize my thoughts. I delight in one of God’s greatest gifts to the world – the coffee bean. ~