I realize I’m lagging in moving forward with this new coffee series. I’ve had tons of stuff going on over the past couple months, and just never could find enough time, energy, and creativity all at the same time to get back to blogging with any regularity. But I’m on it again today. Hopefully, I can stick with it a little better over the next couple weeks at least. Anyway, let’s focus on some coffee now.

I thought today I’d talk to you about dunking.   It probably isn’t considered good manners in any culture to take a piece of food in your hand and stick it into your cup of coffee until it gets soggy — and then slurp it into your mouth — possibly even dripping some coffee down your chin at the same time. 🙂  But I’ve done it since I was a kid,  and I love it. (Well, not the part about the coffee dripping down my chin.)

Some of my favorite memories from childhood involve times when my grandmother,  my mom, my sister and I went to another town very early on several Saturday mornings to visit my mom’s sister and her four kids. Grandma always bought a big box of doughnuts, and my aunt brewed a pot of coffee. We all sat around the table with cups of coffee, ready for dunking. Now, of course, we kids all had cups half full of a brew that was made up of about one half coffee and one half milk and sugar.

But those were such special times. And every once in a while, when I’m missing my family, I think back to those Saturday mornings. And sometimes I go out and buy myself some doughnuts just to sit and dunk them in my coffee while I sit and remember how happy we all were to be together enjoying that treat.

Of course, my coffee today is a little different from what it was back then.  I stopped using sugar in my coffee about the time I got out of college, but I still used milk until one day when I was teaching high school and got really nauseous. I knew I had to get something to settle my stomach quickly, so during the 3 minute break between classes, I rushed down to the cafeteria to see what might be available. The lady in charge had just brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and it smelled so good. Suddenly I felt that if I sipped a little hot coffee with nothing else in it, that would help my stomach. And to my surprise, it did the trick. Just a few sips of the black coffee totally settled my stomach, and I have never added milk or anything else to my coffee since then. 

Once in a great while, I will try some specialty coffee that has a lot of flavored cream or syrup — just to  have a different experience — but those times are rare, and I usually end up disappointed in how it tastes after all.

But now back to dunking: I have never outgrown the desire to dunk things in my coffee. Cookies, of course, top the list of dunkables, along with doughnuts. But I also like to dunk my toast in my coffee as well.  Occasionally, I dunk crackers, and I remember a time or two when I dunked my chocolate fudge in my coffee. Mmmmmmm!!!.  When my mom was alive and we could be together on Christmas Eve, she and I made it a habit to have some of her homemade fudge and coffee for breakfast every Christmas Eve. What fun.

And, of course, it’s so many of those special family memories that make coffee a comfort food for me. I’m sure that’s a good part of the reason I love coffee so much and want to drink it every day. And I’m grateful that I can drink it without any negative effects. I can even drink it right before going to bed. In fact, some nights when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, I can drink a cup of coffee and get all relaxed and settled enough to get to sleep again. And, of course, if I’m really wide awake, grabbing a couple chocolate chip cookies and dunking them rounds off those midnight snacks perfectly.

I hope everyone reading this article has had the joy of dunking goodies in their coffee. But if you have not, be sure you try it before the day’s over. You won’t be sorry.  But be sure and keep a napkin handy for your chin.  🙂

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