“Joyful” Coffee Moments

Almost daily, I make a small pot of Starbuck’s True North coffee. I usually add in a dash of cinnamon to the coffee grounds pre-brewing, because cinnamon makes almost everything better, right? So it is my spices sit in a small, open box on the kitchen counter, with cinnamon snugged up next to, of all things, oregano. (Okay, so my rhyme for spice arrangement is based on “most used” and ease of access, for those moments of “blind quick-thinking” in a pinch while busy cooking – so it makes perfect sense in my world for it to be this way.) Imagine then, if you will, horror of horrors, being lint-fuzzy brain-fogged and absentmindedly on autopilot, reaching for cinnamon and grabbing Oregano – one, two, three, flick of the wrist – viola! in she goes. —— No, I haven’t always caught my mistake in time. And yes, Oregano is wonderful – slightly warm, earthy, pungent, a bit peppery and subtly sweet. A Lovely Herb. I enjoy it very much (even more than Basil). It grows madly “wild” in my garden, on a running rampage, unchecked. Delicious. But it’s not cinnamon. And it doesn’t belong in coffee. At least, not to my tastes.

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purple twinkle-toes
oregano in full bloom
star of the garden

long-distance runner is first
rowdy bees swarm the winner

© wildchild47 2023

for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Challenge #309: “The Spice of Life” where we’re asked to choose a spice and relate its flavour to a recent incident in our lives. I chose the Tanka Prose form for this piece.

Male white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) on the oregano (Origanum vulgare). Keila, Northwestern Estonia. By Ivar Leidus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Incidentals:

Oregano is typically an easy-to-grow herb. A few 4″ pots purchased from a nursery can make for a surprisingly effective ground cover, especially if left to its own devices, i.e. allowed to flower. It readily self-seeds and spreads into a lovely whorled carpet, good for keeping out weeds. It’s part of the mint family, and although it doesn’t spread by “true underground runners” – it tends to root wherever the branches touch the earth. It’s primarily used as a culinary herb but as an ornamental, it creates a delightful, blowsy effect. Bonus – butterflies and bees absolutely love it.

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The name oregano is derived from the Greek oros (meaning mountain) and ganos (meaning joy). And in Greek Mythology, it is believed Aphrodite created the spice as a symbol of happiness.

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twin·kle·toes
/ˈtwiNGkəlˌtōz/
noun INFORMAL

a person who is nimble and quick on their feet

Definitions from Oxford Languages

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Tastes vary – and who knows, maybe one day, new spices will flavour coffee; Starbucks is trying a new “line” of specialty coffee drinks – featuring…. Olive Oil?!

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