Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Addicted

Long ago, before Starbucks took over every other corner in a city, people got their coffee fix in a different way. Mine was at the local AM/PM mini-mart.

I used to stop every single morning, at this little convenience store on the corner, a block from the construction company I worked at. And every morning (and sometimes in the afternoon), I would buy a large "Italian Cappuccino" from one of those machines where you push the button and it hisses and clicks before it sprays a tasty, steaming concoction into your cup. I paid something like $1.10 a cup (oh, the bargain!) for this dreamy drink.

Until one day, when I was approaching the machine and saw the girl filling the chamber with a powdered drink mix. On the pouch she was pouring from, I saw a label that said, General Foods International. General Foods International??? Why, I could buy that in the grocery store!!!

So I did. And that was the beginning of the addiction. At one point, when I was working for a large resort hotel, I made a connection with guy who supplied our coffee and got myself a sweet deal on the product in bulk. I had bags of this stuff lying around; I could have been an Italian Cappuccino dealer.

Now I know Michelle over at Bleeding Espresso is thinking, "Feh! What does she know about real cappuccino???" Well, girl, I know it's not real cappuccino. It's not even close. It's not frothy and foamy and it doesn't even smell like coffee, let alone espresso! But I jones for this particular taste. It's a little Italian monkey on my back. My dirty little secret.

Well, it was my dirty little secret.

1 comment:

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Psst...your dirty little secret is mine too! I *love* General Foods International! Particularly French Vanilla and "Italian Cappuccino."

No, it's not the same as a "real" cappuccino, but it's still *so* good.

To me, it's kind of like the difference between American coffee and espresso--they're distinctly different drinks and I enjoy them both pretty much equally for what they offer ;)

Sure sometimes I want a real cappuccino, but my mom keeps me supplied with the fake stuff for those other times too...so creamy and YUM!