Daria

NaBloPoMo day 4: coffee

Back in the 80s, in Russia, coffee was hard to come by. A can of instant coffee could open doors for you. In other words, it could be used as bribes, a currency of sorts. I think Moscow and St Petersburg got it plenty but, us, deep in the Urals, didn’t really get any. You needed to know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. Having coffee in the house was associated with being well off, having money and connections. So the proletariat in the Urals mainly stuck to tea.

When I was getting my undergraduate degree in the US, I was also working at a supermarket- a very early shift. But I also liked to stay up late- parties and homework. So drip coffee was what I was using to muscle through the days.

Fast forward to my late 30s. I’m pregnant with L and see that instant coffee apparently has less caffeine so it may be more appropriate for pregnant ladies? So I switched back to instant and drink it till this day. My cup of coffee has instant coffee, milk, and some honey.

Join San and others we make our way through #NaBloPoMo! More information about this great initiative can be found here !

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Daria

Mother, teacher, partner, friend. I love coffee, books, and travel with and without kids. I dislike exercise. Nothing glamorous here but do have moments of insight.

14 responses to “NaBloPoMo day 4: coffee”

Tobia | craftaliciousme

November 4, 2023

Haha yes coffee was a currency. We in Estern Germany also had a substitute “muckefuck” because real coffee was hard to come by. But I was too young to be I the coffee drinking age. But the “muckefuck” was having no caffeine so we did drink that.

May I ask where un the Ural you come from?

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Nicole MacPherson

November 4, 2023

I really liked reading this, Daria. It’s so interesting to me, the way you grew up. If you could, I’d love it if you shared more stories about your youth in Russia. It’s so fascinating to me and so different from the world I grew up in. Also, I love that you’re drinking instant coffee with honey, that sounds honestly pretty good.

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Lisa’s Yarns

November 4, 2023

I also would love more stories about your childhood in Russia. I drink coffee until after I graduated from college. I never have been a black coffee drinker, though. I absolutely need creamer. I make coffee at home 6 days a week using a drip coffee maker and then one day I treat myself to one at Starbucks!

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Sarah

November 4, 2023

I have never had instants coffee, but I do love to use a teaspoon of it in chocolate cakes and frosting.

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Elisabeth

November 4, 2023

Agreed – this was fascinating.

I also cannot drink coffee black; if I had to, I would just skip drinking it.

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Grateful Kae

November 4, 2023

My husband and his family all seem to love instant coffee! I think it is a common “thing” in Mexico too.

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home here and there

November 4, 2023

So jealous that you liked coffee at all, when you were pregnant. The first sign that I was pregnant was that the smell of coffee made me sick – I live of coffee any other time.

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San

November 4, 2023

Wow the things we take for granted every day, right? Thanks for this insight into your upbringing in Russia. It’s fascinating that coffee was considered a “currency”. I didn’t drink coffee until I was 25 and then I had it with milk and sugar. I have weaned myself off the sweetener and now like my coffee with 1/3 (soy) milk, nothing else added.

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jennystancampiano

November 4, 2023

Wow, coffee and Snickers bars- two things Americans take for granted. It must have felt incredibly luxurious to you in college- I can have coffee every day? As much as I want??? You must have a special appreciation for it which makes it extra delicious!

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Melissa

November 4, 2023

It’s so interesting hearing more about your childhood. I’ve never had instant coffee, we take our coffee very seriously in Melbourne, but I’m off coffee now because of migraines.

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J

November 4, 2023

My mom was a waitress when I was young, and she used to say, “don’t ever let a customer see the bottom of their cup”, which means, always be bringing the coffee pot around and checking on folks. Was it that way at restaurants, or was it ‘1 cup only?”

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1. Daria
  
  November 5, 2023
  
  There were very few restaurants in my town. And only people with money and connections could really afford to eat out. In general, eating out was considered bad taste since we were part of the proletariat class- people who eat at home and in common canteens.
  
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  1. Natka
    
    November 5, 2023
    
    Oh this brings back memories 🙂
    
    Instant coffee with sweet condensed milk! My father received an “allowance” (paek) of condensed milk and some dry goods when we lived in the Far East.
    
    My father still mainly drinks instant coffee – not sure if that’s because he prefers the taste or if he just finds it easier to make.
    
    And same, we never went out to eat. The only exception – going to a cafe for treats (there were these amazing mini-basket cake thingies – “pirozhnie korzinochka”). And there was no such thing as “take out”. In school, we learned that asking at a restaurant to take food home was bad manners – oh what a culture shock it was to find that in the US that was the norm.
    
    Isn’t it amazing that such a simple thing – a cup of coffee – can trigger so many memories and stories!
    
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Coco

November 4, 2023

I got to know coffee only after we moved to Argentina. I don’t think I tasted it until late teens. I have friends that I consider coffee snob and they taught me good/bad coffee over time. I am still lazy to just have Nespresso but started to develop a taste buds to differentiate good vs. bad coffee.

I still don’t enjoy black coffee, I always need some cream/milk to cut the acidity. But when short in Time, instant coffee is good enough 🙂

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