Coffee Snob

Yes, that’s right, I’m a coffee snob. My snobbery goes back to every morning of my childhood waking up to my dad grinding the coffee beans at 6 a.m. I truly believe I wake up naturally now every morning at that exact time because of my coffee grinding alarm clock as a child. My father loved to go to the coffee store and pick out his perfect blend.

Every morning, he would grind the beans, boil the water and get his Melita filter out and hand pour the hot water to the top of the white paper filter, wait for it to drain and pour again until the glass coffee pot was full.

I think I started drinking coffee way before any of my friends. I remember when I would sleep over at my friend’s houses, they would sleep in and I would be up with their parents having breakfast and talking over coffee. I loved the smell of it and the taste. Back then I loved it black. I loved coffee so much that when I started working at Young and the Restless, they had what tasted like day old coffee that had been re-heated. I got my own coffee maker for my dressing room. When I started working with Doug Davidson (Paul) another coffee connoisseur, we decided we would put the coffee maker in his dressing room and put a lock on the drawer we kept it in so no one would take our beloved coffee maker or the dark French roast coffee I ground for us every day we worked. One of the funniest stories Doug just told me and he tells me many, is that the drawer we thought was so safe, was not. Years later when he was working with Lauralee Bell (Christine) they put a valuable camera in the drawer, only to find it stolen! How could that be?! There is a lock on the drawer! Well, we are all such genius', that we never realized that to have a secure drawer you need a secure bottom to the drawer above it, so no one can just take out the drawer above and reach in and grab whatever is in the locked drawer?! Doug told me this story recently and we must have laughed for 10 minutes straight. It never occurred to me that that could ever happen.

Ok, back to my snobbery. I started to have break outs on my cheeks and for the life of me couldn’t figure out why. I went to my homeopathic doctor who told me it was coffee. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. He said, “You are allergic to coffee! Try something for me, don’t drink it for 30 days and see what you think.” I couldn’t think of anything worse than giving up my companion… coffee. Reluctantly, I did and within 24 hours, I had my answer, clear skin, crap! How am I going to get through the next 29 days. He only said 30 days, right? I barely made it and on day 30, I was in line at my favorite coffee shop, ready for a fix. I had my latte and was sooo happy. I was cured! Until the next morning, OH NO!! Red spots all over my cheeks! I was allergic! So I had to give it up... but then found tea! I grew up in London. I drank tea all the time. I tried not to feel left out when everyone was having cappuccinos after dinner and tried to be fine while everyone sipped their coffees every morning. I tried desperately not to get sucked in by that full-bodied aroma. Well, if I couldn’t drink coffee then I was going to do tea like nobody’s business. I started collecting teapots, which I still do to this day.

I had enough tea paraphernalia to open my own teashop! Of course, I had to have black tea with strawberries flown in by my favorite store, Fortnum and Mason in England. I had to do it BIG! I grew to love my tea. I love Jasmine pearl tea too, which costs almost as much as dinner at Spago!

Another is fresh mint leaves in a pot of hot water and for extra zest, you can add fresh ginger slices too. Incredible smell and incredible taste!

So, it had been years since I had had coffee. My son, Austin was going to turn 21 and we had this grand idea that on his 21st birthday, we should be sipping champagne in Paris! So off we went with my boyfriend, Aaron, whose birthday is the day after Austin’s.

We rented a flat in the 7th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel tower. The flat we rented came with an espresso machine called Nespresso. Well, there went everything! I decided to try the espresso. Guess what? No breakouts! I drank latte’s in Versailles, drank them on the Champs de Elysees …everywhere! Oh, coffee, how I missed you!! Now I still drink tea but need my latte’s! Now, here’s the catch. I’m now the biggest coffee snob ever.

I love my Nespresso machine so much that I looked into buying a carrying case so I could travel with it, some people take their dogs on the plane, me; my espresso machine.

Love the organic coffee house out here in Malibu, not far from my house, Cafecito Organico.

I also love the little coffee joint in the Farmer’s market called SO- Single Origin.

I have drawn Hunter Haley King (Summer on Y and R) into my coffee web. She is now my coffee buddy and we make coffee runs at work. I’m the one wait staff at restaurants hates because if the latte’s aren’t good, I will send them back…terrible, I know. I can’t quite do the big coffee chains either. The taste has to be just…PERFECT - like my morning coffee made with love ( Aaron makes a foamy sign of devotion for me in my morning coffee ).