Cinna-POW-der

I usually take my coffee black, but I like flavored coffees. Since these are generally more expensive, I don’t always get them. To sweeten my coffee without adding the extra calories of sugar, I often lace our coffee with cinnamon. I just throw a little on top of the coffee in the filter before brewing.

To this end, there’s a little tin of cinnamon at hand over the stove with the rest of the spices. I’m short and can barely reach beyond the first row, so I keep the ones I use regularly right up front. I used the cinnamon two days in a row last week, so that’s where I grabbed it from on Saturday morning to make coffee.

When the coffee maker’s beep alerted me that the brewing had finished, I poured myself a mug and sat down to read the news.

I sipped. Not very sweet. I sipped some more. It wasn’t very good.

I figured Trent had slipped some of the really cheap coffee into the coffee container when I wasn’t looking. Just a bad batch.

I sipped some more and began to get ready for the day:

shower.sip.hairdryer.sip.makeup.sip.hair straightener.sip.

Not only did the coffee not taste good, but now that I was on my second cup, it was starting to sort of burn my throat. But a girl’s gotta have her caffeine, right? Sip. Burn.

I poured the rest of that cup down the drain and began to fret that perhaps I had developed an allergy to cinnamon that I hadn’t had previously.

Side note: I am, in fact, allergic to cinnamon…externally. I’ve never had a problem ingesting it. But one time in college, my friend/roommate Erica dropped nearly half a shaker of cinnamon on my head, and I broke out like you wouldn’t believe. But again: never any problem with it in or on food or in drinks.

I went on about my day, and that mild burning sensation subsided. I didn’t think about it anymore, but I also didn’t put cinnamon in my coffee on Sunday or Monday. Just in case.

Fast forward to Monday night: it’s fuh-reezing cold, so we decide to make chili. I’m walking Trent through the process, giving directions, handing him ingredients. I reach up to get the chili powder. It’s right up front. Which is weird, since we haven’t made chili in a few weeks.

It’s right up front.

Looking exactly like…you guessed it: the cinnamon!

So yeah. I put chili powder in my coffee on Saturday. Awesome.

How do you take your coffee?