I have had the debate time and time again over the validity of my coffee as compared to other friends' coffee. Yes, I add sugar and creamer, but that is how I like to have my coffee, much like some people prefer butter on their toast or salt and pepper on their dinner. Drinking coffee without any added ingredients can be commendable but the debate remains over what is the "true" way in which to drink coffee.

Discovered in the 9th century in Ethiopia, coffee spread throughout the North African world, infiltrating the Muslim culture until the 15th century when it was spread to the rest of Europe and on to the Americas. In many African cultures, such as those in Yemen and Ethiopia, coffee had an important role in many religious ceremonies and was therefore banned from secular consumption. The original coffee drinkers drank the coffee straight from the beans (the "pure" form), without any of the fancy additives which we now add, and was thought to counteract many stomach illnesses. While coffee did not experience the boom in North America that it did upon initial introduction in Europe, the demand grew during the Revolutionary War mostly due to the reduced availability of tea during this time. The American taste for coffee grew during the Civil War as increases in brewing technology led to a better tasting quality for everyone. This in turn led to coffee becoming the everyday commodity which we now know it to be.

Coffee users have since discovered a myriad of ways in which to prepare the beverage, from the traditional "black" coffee, to coffee with milk or cream, even iced coffee. Espresso-based coffee is even another way that was created in a shot form, or in a watered-down style of café américano. Milk can additionally be added to this drink to make a café latte, or equal parts of steamed milk and milk froth can make a cappuccino, or even a bit of hot foamed milk on top creates a caffé macchiato. Instant coffee has also become incredibly popular throughout the modern world for those coffee drinkers who do not wish to prepare their own. This increase in particular coffee use has also procured an increase in coffee shops throughout the world as well, with many Starbucks-esque shops which serve customers who want their coffee prepared with a certain flavor or added ingredients. This evolution from the early coffee drinkers who simply drank the "bunnu" fruit in Africa has been an amazing transition; most Americans today cannot fathom drinking coffee straight from its original source, especially without the specialized drinks they have now learned to love.

In the end, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to drink coffee, but if you want to debate over the methods, the original way to drink coffee was the preferred "black" way, although even Civil War Americans liked to add their milk to the mix. Coffee has become a staple of modern day society and many people now could not function without the caffeine it provides to their day, which is the main reason why this cash crop will never drop in value.

This post was contributed by Meredith Walker, who writes about the online nursing programs. She welcomes your feedback at MeredithWalker1983 at gmail.com

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There's one thing about coffee that doesn't sit well with people who don't make a lot of money. It's expensive. It's always going to be expensive. My wife told me about how she had rice coffee when she was young because her family was too poor to buy coffee. So I knew about rice coffee, but I didn't know there was also a corn coffee.

It's Not Coffee

I don't know why people insist on calling it rice coffee or corn coffee. Unlike teas that are called teas even when they're not make from tea plant, rice and corn coffee aren't even brewed like coffee.

Perhaps it's due to the way it looks as opposed to how it's made. Both rice coffee and corn coffee is as dark as black coffee after the ingredients are boiled. My wife swears the rice coffee tastes like regular coffee. I don't think so, but I can't argue the point since I've never tasted it.

Making Rice Coffee

My wife said all they did to make rice coffee was to take raw, white rice and roast it in a skillet until it was almost burnt. Then they would add it to water and boil it. After they poured the liquid into cups, they would discard the rice sediment at the bottom of the pot.

I read somewhere else that the rice was to be ground (with a mortar and pestle) before boiling, but my wife said it wasn't necessary.

Making Corn Coffee

I haven't read a description of how corn coffee is made, but it's supposed to taste like coffee too. From what I've read, though, Native Americans in the US and Canada were drinking corn coffee more than a century ago.

I'm not even going to consider it. It probably tastes worse than Postum did.

No Coffee Means No Coffee

My wife said she'd make rice coffee when she gets back to the Philippines, just so that I can taste it for myself. I'm sorry, but coffee is coffee and there isn't a substitute for me. If I can't get the real stuff then I don't want any kind of "make believe" coffee. I'd rather do without coffee than to try to fool my taste buds and my stomach into believing that something else could be just as good as real coffee.

(Image source: Corn Coffee at Pinoy Food & Other Cuisine :: Food PhotoBlog and Events)

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When non-dairy creamers were introduced either in the late 1950s or early 1960s, people didn't know that one of the ingredients isn't good for you at all. The use of non-dairy creamers peaked in the 1980s, but there are people who have always used one form of milk or another instead of buying into the non-dairy creamer routine.

The bad ingredient I'm talking about is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (or fat).

Dairy Creamers

I was born in 1960 and grew up watching the older folks drink coffee with a dairy creamer of one kind or another. I don't even remember a non-dairy creamer being used before we lived in Hawaii in the mid-1970s.

Evaporated milk from a can is what I remember the most. It's not really cream. It's just milk with a lot of the water removed and thus it still has to be refrigerated after opening. Sugar is added as a sweetener when evaporated milk is used. Condensed milk, also called "sweetened condensed milk", already has sugar added to it. It's basically evaporated milk plus sugar and it has to be refrigerated after opening as well.

Some people think that regular whole milk is thick enough to serve the purpose. I know that the UHT milk works well because that's what I use on rare occasions. Since I learned of the trans-fat issue surrounding partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, I've been drinking coffee black with a little added sugar.

Non-Dairy Creamers

One of the first makers of non-dairy creamers was the Nestlé Corporation, with Coffee-Mate in 1961. A whole bunch of other companies jumped on the bandwagon and I can't even begin to name names.

I suppose people who are lactose-intolerant are left with a choice of either black coffee or coffee with a non-dairy creamer. Fortunately, Nestlé has come out recently with non-dairy creamers that are lower in fat and some that contain absolutely no partially hydrogenated vegetable oil at all.

The trick is to read the label. Some brands of non-dairy creamer will say "no trans-fat" when in reality they have just little enough to legally say none. The Nestlé Corporation has no reason to skew this information since they're marketing health-conscious products as much as possible.

Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils and Trans-Fats

I'm no chemist and I only know what I've learned through various sources. The process of hydrogenating vegetable oil produces trans-fats. Trans-fats have been linked to heart disease as well as the increased size of people's midsections (the big, fat belly syndrome).

Non-diary creamers are used in tea as well as coffee, so the benefits of drinking tea are outweighed by the trans-fat that non-dairy creamers introduce. You need to do your research and read the labels when you decide to buy a non-dairy creamer product. It's your health you should be worried about, not about whether it tastes better with a dairy creamer or not.

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It's amazing to me how one thing can be called by so many different things in the English language. Sometimes it's even something that's imported from another language. If you try to use any of the terms instead of the word "coffee" in many foreign countries (like my home in the Philippines), you'll just get a blank stare.

Synonyms for Coffee

There are a lot of synonyms for coffee that are purely American colloquialisms. Most are slang terms, but some are real words. Here's a brief list of the terms I've heard enough times to remember:

• Black Gold
• Coffee (naturally)
• Java
• Joe
• Lifer Juice
• Nectar of the Gods

I want to take focus specifically on three of them: Black Gold, Lifer Juice and Nectar of the Gods.

Black Gold

When coffee is first poured, before any thing is added to dilute the taste, the natural color is normally a very dark brown. It's dark enough to be called black and that's why it's called black coffee. Some coffee connoisseurs (like me) call it black gold even though black gold is an original slang term for oil (petroleum).

If you think "black gold" isn't used to refer to coffee very often, you're mistaken. A movie with a title like "Black Gold" wouldn't be made unless the term is commonly used somewhere.

Lifer Juice

This is what the senior enlisted men called coffee, on occasion, when I was still in the military. It's what I called it. You don't believe me? Have you ever seen the movie "Heartbreak Ridge" (a Clint Eastwood movie from 1986)? Although not quite correct, one of the quotes from the movie that was uttered by the character of Sergeant Major Choozoo was "Hey crotch rot! You gonna slurp my lifer's juice out of my own cup?" Gunnery Sergeant ("Gunny") Highway responded with "Yeah, I guess I should have gotten shots before hand."

Why was it called "Lifer Juice"? The name "Lifer" was given to anyone in the military who reenlisted beyond their first enlistment term, sometimes used in a derogatory manner. I usually countered with something like "I'm not a lifer, I'm a career Marine" in order neutralize the effect when used to insult me.

Nectar of the Gods

This hasn't been used to describe coffee as often as any other term, but it's used occasionally. It's also used to describe beer and certain highly caffeinated carbonated beverages (soda, soda pop, pop). Of course, the original nectar of the gods is wine.

Wine dates back to the 6th century BC, when it was first introduced in Persia. Coffee wasn't discovered until the 9th century AD, in the highlands of Ethiopia. The older drink takes precedence. Of course the bible story where Jesus turns water into wine adds credence to the claim.

Joe and Java

I know that Joe was a slang word for coffee during World War II, but no one really knows when and where it originated. I rarely heard it used for coffee when I was in the US and I never hear it in the Philippines. Here, foreigners are called "Joe" by some people when the people don't know the foreigner's names. I've only been called Joe a couple of times in a period of more than two years.

The term "java" get's its origin from the island of Java in Indonesia. While it's also used to refer to a specific programming language, the usage of java in place of coffee predates the usage for the programming language. I can't give you any specific date, but I know it was being used before anyone ever heard of the programming language.

It's Just Coffee

I no longer call coffee anything but coffee. It's called "kape" in the Tagalog (Filipino) language and "cafe" (with or without an accent mark) or "kapi" in other languages. Most people in most countries understand the English version of coffee, so it's best that I stick to using it when I'm not sure what it's called wherever I'm at.

I may be missing some terms, although I doubt it. What do YOU call coffee?

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