Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Everyone has their morning ritual to start the day off just right.

I`ve become fascinated lately with the caffiene part of that ritual.

For instance, I know one gal who starts her day off at Starbucks with the following order, "I`d like a grande soy latte at 150 degrees." She seems to be convinced that this preserves the nutritional value of the soy better - anything over 150 degrees destroys it. I`ve also noticed that this same person usually takes only a few sips of the drink. The rest is left unenjoyed in a cup somewhere with a slight lipstick stain.

Jeff, my brother, orders, "Medium coffee." He hasn`t hipped up to the coffee shop lingo yet. He downs it quickly, but interestingly, claims that he doesn`t really like the taste of it. "It`s not about taste. It`s about satifying a craving."

As for me, my order goes like this: "I`d like a grande China Tips with eight cubes, one in, one out." The ice cubes bring the searing hot water down to drinkable temperature and the second tea bag, which they usually also steep in the hot water, provides caffiene reserves for an early afternoon jolt of energy.

I wonder what people like Steve Jobs order? And Patrick Byrne? Or how about Oprah? What`s their source of out-of-the-gate fuel for the day?

And you? Do you have a caffiene ritual that kicks you into gear each morning?

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Sorry Rich. . . I don`t drink anything but water!  But I take it as precisely 42.5 degrees Farenheit!  

Stephanie

I consider myself lucky.  I never drank a cup of coffee in my life.  And I`m one of the few people in my company to drink coffee

I walk to the nearby convenience store at about 5:15 a.m.
Choices abound: regular and decaf.
(A guy named Chipper is often there. He is a coffee chemist, who barely recognizes my presence since he is lost in his careful coffee experimentation. Adding various creamers and sugars. Stirring. Sipping its effects. If he wore safety goggles, he would remind you of those scientists they used to show you in high school chemistry movies.)
I, of course, go with regular. Black. I agree with Jeff: it`s not about taste.
If you bring your own mug or bring back your cup, you get a refill rate... 84 cents. I continually take my cup back, until my wife gets so grossed out by the ever-stained lid. She either forces me to fork over the extra quarter and get a new cup, or my old cup does a Jimmy Hoffa and mysteriously disappears.
That`s my caffeine habit.

Matt

I love coffee! The smell. The taste. The way it warms you up on a cold winter morning. I put a pot on as soon as I get up in the morning and I sip at it all morning. The caffeine doesn`t affect me the same way it affects most people. That`s both good and bad. It means I can drink coffee all morning and take an afternoon nap. But it also means it doesn`t wake me up very well either.

I think I`ll go make a pot of coffee!

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VickiJ
www.freshairjournal.com

Another coffee lover here - but I don`t even have to leave the house to have my double latte with 2% milk at 160 degrees.  I have an incredble Saeco Italian espresso machine that automatically grinds the beans, tamps the grounds, pours the shots, dumps the grounds and cleans itself. I do need to manually steam the milk on the machine.  My first latte is about 5:30 a.m., my second is at about 10:00 a.m. and then I`m usually done for the day.  It`s a rare treat to have another one late in the afternoon.

- J.




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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

No Coffee for me.  I have a first-thing-in-the- morning Yoplait addiction.  I walk to my computer, turn it on and then hit the fridge for a cup of Yoplait Light to slurp while I read my email.

~Kim

 

First thing I do is get out my coffee (which I grinded maybe the night before).
My favorite is cinnamon hazlenut, when its done I sit down at my computer and get to work. Its one cup a day for me unless I go out for lunch, then I definitely
have a second cup - most likely cappechino.


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Jo
NJ

I’ve been a coffee drinker since birth—or just about.  When I was little my nonna, my maternal grandmother, would pour stove brewed espresso into a bowl of milk so I could dip my biscotti as we watched the afternoon soaps. Twenty years later, I’ve kicked my General Hospital habit, but my love of coffee is for life. 

 

My morning routine usually goes one of three ways.  If my dad’s home in the morning, he’ll usually fix me a cappuccino on our Gaggia—a great little machine—with extra foam.  He uses whole milk.  The foam is heavenly, and for such a small cup, it’s worth the extra calories.  I don’t use sugar.  Some Italians will dilute ten spoonfuls of sugar into a thimble size cup of espresso.  I’ve seen it.  I used to love the sweetness, but now the coffee flavor is enough.  I’ll down my cap in a few sips before I’m out the door.  These are the best mornings.  Italians have a way of taking a good thing and making it better, and my dad has learned well from my mom’s side of the fam.

 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays when my dad teaches, I’ll stop at the ‘buck if I have time.  On these mornings it’s a grande Birminghammer, our neighborhood’s pet name for a non-fat, no foam latte.  I always miss the foam, but “grande Birminghammer” is so efficient, it’s worth the sacrifice.  My need for efficiency stems from the fact that I usually wake up 20 minutes before I have to be at work.  For this reason, I rarely make it to Starbucks and drink office coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This isn’t as terrible as it sounds.  Jeff and Rich buy Starbucks house roast and with some milk it’s pretty good. 

 

When I first started working here we had an espresso machine, but I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to use it.  No one ever did.  By the time I had settled in enough to go for it, it was gone.  Maybe to Jeff’s house?  I doubt it since, as Rich said, for Jeff it’s not about the taste—which to me suggests he’s just not drinking it right. 

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Never got the coffee habit.  But somewhere along the line I got hooked on 24oz bottle of caffeine free diet pepsi.  Must be that - not regular pepsi, not coke, not a can, not 20 oz.  Don`t ask me why, just one of those things.  I used to buy them before work for $1.29 until I realized that I could pick up a six pack while food shopping at 6/$3.00.  Worst way to start my morning is to realize that I do not have any diet pepsi in the fridge and I will have to bring a warm one with me to work. :-6  (And yes, I would rather bring a warm 24oz from home than buy a 20oz cold from the local store.  Don`t ask me why, I couldnt` tell you).






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