Christmas coffee tea cups

It’s not the snow that does it. It’s not the Christmas lights. It’s not the parades, it’s not the Christmas muzak in the malls. I do love all those signs of the season, but it really doesn’t feel like Christmas until you get that first festive paper cup from Tim Hortons.

As I've previously lamented, I lost my taste for coffee when I was about six weeks pregnant. Loved the smell of it, craved the idea of it, but whenever I tried to drink it, it always tasted like the worst cup of six hour old diner coffee you’ve ever forced yourself to drink so you'd at least benefit from the caffeine hit. I haven’t been able to finish a cup in three months.

Rather than give up my morning routine, I swapped my morning beverage of choice. I still queued up at Timmy’s, but ordered a bagel and steeped tea instead of a muffin and coffee. It’s been my breakfast every weekday since Labour Day.

Now that I’m unpregnant again, I’m patiently waiting for my taste for coffee to return. I’ve genuinely missed it. Yesterday afternoon, I found myself craving a midafternoon java jolt, and figured my taste for coffee was finally returning. I ambled over to Timmy’s and even got one of the festive cups.

Despite more years of coffee drinking than I can count, apparently it’s only taken three months to confuse my brain into expecting the distinctly sharper bite of steeped tea instead of the mellow roast of coffee.

It still doesn’t taste right. It’s not awful, but it’s not worth craving. Oh well, at least I can get a tea in a festive cup.

What says "it's Christmas" to you?