catapult magazine

Coffee, uncomplicated

by Kacie Rogers

My apartment smells like coffee and books. Why does that combination go so well together? Why does coffee complement our lives?



Coffee greets me with warm, delicious wake-up molecules in the form of liquid. Slightly sweetened by cream, the rising steam reaches me before the coffee. I wait for it to cool before I indulge, because although I need the wake-up juice, I really like the taste of coffee, and when it is too hot, I cannot truly taste it. As with all the good things in life, it is worth the wait.  For those of us who drink coffee each morning, it’s a ritual, to breathe deep the scent of coffee and drink along with everyone else in this time zone who is waking up.



I take tiny sips and as my mind awakens, the pen in my hand is inspired to scratch away in my journal. There’s no stopping the thoughts now that they are alert! These lined pages in my journal are quickly filled with thin black letters and I don’t even bother to re-read anything that I have written yet because another thought has come to mind and needs to escape to the page. 

My coffee is the perfect temperature now and the smooth drink swirls in my mouth.

Coffee can become so complex when you visit a coffee shop where suddenly the choices thrown at you force you to make a handful of decisions at once. Hot, cold, non-fat, soy, hazelnut, caramel, double-shot, whipped cream…do you ever forget what you want sometimes? For me, soy latte. Easy to remember. Always good.

At home? Freshly brewed coffee with half ’n half. No matter how complex the coffee is, drinking it un-complicates me while waking up my creative brain cells. Eager now, I am ready to tackle the day, right after I finish writing a few more pages.