The Best Part of Waking Up

The best part of waking up... (sorry Folgers), is Community Coffee in your cup.  Tricia and I switched from Dark Roast to Coffee and Chicory a while back.  We like the extra "bite" of the coffee.  Each night before bed, we get the coffee all prepared and the water ready and in the morning on the way out the door to milk the cows, I'll turn the coffee maker on.  When I come back inside, the aroma in the kitchen is wonderful!

We have a regular "Mr. Coffee" type coffee maker, but on weekends and special occasions, we will brew the coffee in a french press.  Coffee in a french press always tastes richer.  I've been told that it's because in a regular drip coffee maker, flavorful oils get trapped in the paper coffee filter, but I'm not sure if that is true or not.  Away from home, I'll drink it black, but at home, I'll add some fresh cream from our cows and a teaspoon of honey from our friend's bees and it is delicious.

This morning I fixed a big thermos of coffee as I headed out the door.  I was driving to Baton Rouge for work today.  Baton Rouge is about an hour and a half away and is due east on I-10.  I sipped on my coffee as I drove and observed night gradually becoming day.  On the Atchafalaya Freeway the rising sun glimmered on the water in Henderson Swamp.  It was a chilly morning (53 degrees) and water vapor was rising off the water, shrouding the cypress trees - a beautiful sight.

The Atchafalaya Basin Bridge is almost 19 miles long and is the third longest bridge in the United States.  As I exited the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, I finished my thermos of coffee and could see the Louisiana State Capital building due east, perfectly framed in the eastern sky with the trees on either side of the Interstate.  It wasn't long before I was on the Mississippi River Bridge heading into Baton Rouge.

Traffic soon came to a standstill on the western side of the bridge in Port Allen and I could see light smoke wafting across the bridge.  At first I thought there was an accident and then I remembered!  I quickly unrolled my window and breathed in deeply.  Sounds weird, right?  Let me explain.  Community Coffee has a roasting plant on the western side of the Mississippi River in Port Allen, right near I-10 where they roast coffee beans.  At certain times from your car as you ride over the bridge, you can smell the great aroma of roasting coffee beans.  Looking on the bright side, being in stalled traffic on the bridge, I could at least enjoy the soothing aroma of roasting coffee right from my vehicle.  Aroma therapy, you might say!