I have a friend that says, "If you like cream in your coffee you probably like communism too." An interesting concept my friend brings up, cream in coffee. Day after day I watch customers state, "please leave room," and then spend minutes at the condiment stand siring, pouring, and tasting until the perfect cream/sugar concoction has been accomplished.

What is the lure of putting cream in one's coffee? I myself never have, I enjoy tasting the full spectrum of black coffee. Without cream I am able to taste what creamer lovers cannot, real coffee. I further questioned the popularity of cream when my roommate (and Tea Master) Mary took a trip to New York. A steadfast black coffee drinker since the age of fifteen she was dismayed when her host brought her a usual morning cup polluted with cream and sugar. Mary's immediate response: I can't drink this! However, not wanting to seem rude, she drank it anyway and was even more dismayed to discover. . . ..that she liked it!

It gets crazier, beyond her better judgment; Mary found herself dumping cream and sugar in her coffee the rest of the week. She says, "I felt kinda like a rebel. I have betrayed my own values and crossed over to the other side. And I was worried what comes next: decaf?" Fearful that this scandalous behavior would become a habit, Mary quickly returned to her black coffee and was relieved to find that she did not miss the cream and sugar all that much.

"I came to the conclusion that I love the taste of black coffee," she said, "adding cream and sugar every once in awhile may spice up the daily routine. But chronic application is not for the avid black coffee drinker." She also notes an upside to adding cream made coffee the perfect temperature to drink. I'm also sure that it dilutes the coffee making it less potent. So I guess I can see why others are adding cream to their coffee, but I still don't support it. Be as it may we live in America where we still have the freedom to do whatever we want with our coffee.