Sweet Helps the Bitter Go Down

On an application to a job I once had (you can guess), one of the questions it asked was, "What is your favorite thing about coffee?" Sure, I could answer the typical, "The taste!" "The smell!" or, "The way I'm addicted to it!"
But moreso, I like the way coffee can bring people together.
To me, coffee means community. Yes, billions* of people are addicted to coffee and go out of their way for it each day. They'll drink it by themselves at 6:00 in the morning. Decaf even. I've seen it. That's true addiction. To them, coffee means life.
But there are also a good amount of people who go out for coffee in order to share good conversation, to spend time together, to have human interaction. Even those who are addicted so much that they go to a coffee shop every day get some sort of human interaction, even if it is for only a minute. Sadly it may be the best conversation they'll have all day.
And it's not just limited to coffee. Tea can bring people together too. One of my goals for 2009 is to develop a taste for tea. One of the ways I've been doing that is to say "yes" every time someone offers me tea (I've also watched the movie "Yes Man" in 2009). Trust me, I get offered tea a lot. It's a cultural thing.
Ironically I like tend to like the more fruity, herbal teas best. Which is saying a lot. I don't mind green tea. And I still need to choke down black tea. I don't know what it is about black tea, makes my throat close.
But how great is the feeling of community when you are able to partake in someone else's hospitality? To be able to say, "yes" when they offer you tea, and then to share the conversation that is likely to ensue.
When we visited Turkey, we drank a lot of coffee and tea. Turkish coffee is very strong and sometimes reminiscent of mud. They serve it in very small mugs, because that is all you need (can handle, in my case). But I learned to like it. Two things that helped were:
1. I immensely enjoyed the company of those offering the coffee (or tea. But mostly coffee),
and
2. More often than not, the coffee was served with a small bit of chocolate.
Early on I discovered that if I held the chocolate in my mouth while drinking the coffee (it's possible to keep it there for the entire cup, I've found), it makes the coffee taste so good. It really helps.
And the same is with community. To share both the sweet and the bitter together makes life so much better.
I don't care if it's cheesy. I believe it to be true.



*rough estimate.

Apparently there is a tradition that when you're done with your coffee, you're supposed to turn the cup over onto the saucer and let all the mud slowly make its way down. The design it leaves on the cup will tell you your fortune, according to tradition. With this cup, if you turned it upside down, you will see a city-scape. My guess is Izmir.