I did not
drink coffee until a couple years ago, but I find it a wonderful drink for
waking me up, keeping me awake when driving, eliminating my migraines (coffee
and a banana) and on this trip helping with the effects of what was either a
head cold or allergies.
I like
coffee in the room because I wake up too early to do anything and I write
better in the morning. I prefer an in
room coffee maker
to my little traveling coffee maker:
The water gets
hotter in the room variety. But I have the other as a backup
and it works fine.
This trip I
brought Godiva chocolate truffle coffee which my son gave me. My son does not drink coffee and was given a
whole bag of Lady Godiva chocolate truffle coffee. He have it to my wife and she gave it to
me. I love it!
The GVI
Orleans and Gold Coast coffee maker was just fine and used bags of coffee and replace
them for free, but I don’t get daily housekeeping and did not seem to run into the maids in the
hall to remember to ask for coffee. So I
used some of what I carried when I could.
My wife is
addicted to coffee and has it every morning soon after she wakes up. She prefers going out to find a Starbucks or
some other good coffee. At home she uses
a French press and she does not like the coffee makers in hotels. As a result the free coffee packs we
encounter in our journeys get tossed in one section of my suitcase. Here in Vegas they were very useful when the
provided coffee ran out.
Coffee
makers use standard small bags of coffee at the El Cortez cabana rooms, but at
the D there is a fancy Keurig machine.
The cost per cup is $2.50. My
local grocery brand was more like 50 cents per small cup. I might have bought some, but I don’t really
know which of the Keurig coffees I like
the best and just decided to use what I had this trip and set up my traveling
coffee pot when I am back at the D. Next
time I’ll bring some hazelnut.
I always
pack two ceramic cups when traveling anywhere, one a standard size and another
oversized in case I want to use it to steep tea or as a bowl for food brought
back to the room. The larger size is also good when brewing any larger bags of
coffee I’ve collected in other hotels in my travels with my wife during the
year. Bringing cups may seem extravagant
and it does add weight to my already overloaded luggage, but it is just so
pleasant to be drinking coffee or tea out of a real cup. Also, it saves waste. Those syrofoam cups are terrible to try to
reuse. Honestly, I don’t really like
them the first time and I hate to have them next to my computer with these
clumsy arthritic hands. And I think they
alter the taste of the coffee.
Downtown I
could buy and discard a ceramic cup.
There are plenty of them for a dollar.
However, I have a problem. I love
all sorts of cups and glasses. I winter
in Florida where thrift stores are as common as McDonald’s and prolific with
quarter or fifty cent cups or glasses of all sorts. I drive my wife crazy with my
collection. I often pick up those I like
and when I break one traveling, I feel
bad. To discard a cup I would have to
buy one I hated. That seems counterproductive.
This trip I
carried one with a Myer’s rum decal. Since I am drinking almost no alcohol, and
certainly not getting drunk on my favorite Myers Rum anymore :
At least the
cup logo offers me a pleasant memories.
I carry a
small green scratcher to wash cups. This
is a great cleanup tool.
At the Gold
Coast I tried some experiments. Rather
than unpack my traveling coffee maker, I decide to use my chocolate coffee to
make a second cup in the room coffee maker.
I knew the coffee used with no bag filter would make a mess, but I
thought if I sprinkled coffee on top of the coffee provided, I could squeeze
out a cup.
Well that
didn’t work. Loose coffee in these
makers manages to find its way around, so it was a while cleaning up the coffee
maker and I ran a couple of plain cups of water through to get the last of the
grounds.
I grabbed
one of the free coffee pods in my suitcase and it was decaf, collected by
mistake. So I decided to try another
experiment. I sliced a small opening in
the bag, threw away the decaf coffee and poured some of my Godiva chocolate
coffee in that bag. I put a bit of
adhesive tape on the slit and that worked just fine. Perhaps grocery stores
sell small bags that can be filled with coffee and sealed in some way. I’ll look. I know that I can buy coffee in
bags like tea bags, but I don’t think the water is hot enough by the time it
hits the cup to really get the coffee flavor out.
I thought
the coffee in the Gold Coast and the Orleans was very good, but since I lace it
with Stevia and cinnamon that may make almost any coffee taste fine. I am not much of a connoisseur. I actually prefer tea and try to drink green
Japanese Seshua tea often during the day
after reading a study on longevity in Japan where those drinking five
cups of Japanese green tea extended their lives by 25%. I use the coffee as a drug to keep me going
at Wild Bill’s pace when I’d rather just sleep
Stevia in a
shaker (see photo) is just great and very healthy unlike the artificial that degenerate
bones, increase cancer risk, and in most studies actually cause weight gain in
spite of having no calories. I do want
to get a smaller holed shaker. I tend to
use too much and make the coffee too sweet.
I carry some
cinnamon as some studies suggest it is good for diabetes. It is on my list of superfoods. I got more at both the D and the Orleans and
carried back to the room added to my stash.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57580670/cinnamon-challenge-dangerous-to-lungs-new-report-warns/
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