My Torrid Love Affair Here in the Combat Zone

...with coffee, silly! =P

There is a coffee shop chain here in the combat zone. They are called Green Beans Coffee. You can find them back in the States, but they are on military bases. I would compare them to a military contract version of Starbucks, but they hate it when you do that.

Green Beans is a great coffee shop. They live up to their motto: "Honor First, Coffee Second" by donating proceeds from all their sales to charities that help the families of fallen Soldiers. Contrary to what people tell you about military contractors alot of them are the good guys.

Maybe I am biased because I am a 24 hour coffee drinker. My pot back in the States brews all day until its time to go home. I've made cups of coffee only minutes before bed time. I'm also a big fan of bold, dark roasts (Have you ever tried Starbucks' blend called Sumatra? Good stuff!) The closer it is to actually chewing on the beans the better it is. If I don't have a coffee cup in hand, people ask me if there is something wrong with me.

It all started back when I was a kid in the Boy Scouts. I was made the Senior Patrol Leader which made me the top kid before you got to the adult leadership. This meant alot of late nights and early mornings. One of the adult leaders introduced me to camp coffee because he got tired of listening to me complain before sunrise. I've never been able to put the stuff down since.

So Green Beans and I make a perfect team. I love dark coffee and they have the legendary MOAC. The MOAC is a coffee so epic that it has taken on mythological proportions among service members. Most people are too fearful to even try it. Fair-weather coffee drinkers don't have the stomach for it. Yes, my friends, MOAC separates the sissy from the caffeine addict... the crypto-Tory, royalty-toasting tea-sipper from a true American patriot! :P

What exactly is a MOAC you may ask?

Simple: M.O.A.C. is the Mother Of All Coffees. Even the name gives me the hyperactive jitters. Opening the lid to a MOAC is like rubbing your face in a full coffee tin. How strong is this thing? Well, let me save you the trip to over here by explaining what's in it. Make yourself a homemade MOAC and give it a try... if you're not a sissy.

Take a 24oz cup (the guys at Green Beans call it a "Quad". You have single, double, triple, quad sizes.) Okay... now get ready:

Brew up four (4) shots of espresso (if you are manly, make them doubles).
Pour those four (4) espresso shots into your cup.
Brew up a 12oz cup of dark roast coffee.
Pour that into the cup with the four (4) espresso shots.
If it's darker than a Hershey bar, you've done it right.
Serve it to your victim... errr customer.

Ah, good times. I love this thing. It'll be one of the little pleasures that I miss about being deployed.

Oh... and I drink it black!