Well, I messed up. October 1st was International Coffee Day. Yippee! Hooray!

And I missed it.

You know, when you forget someone’s birthday, like on Facebook, I prefer to say “Happy Birthday Season” rather than all the belated stuff. So, “Happy Coffee Season!”

The weather should be transitioning into cooler temps just about everywhere. Football season is in full swing and everyone is starting to make a big deal about Halloween costumes and pumpkin spice latte (blech!).

So it makes sense that we honor a trusted friend that never disappoints, and never lets us down: coffee. If you are a tea or, heaven forbid, pumpkin spice latte fiend, then this story is not for you. Heck, you probably aren’t reading it anyway.

But if you belong to the select tribe of coffee aficionados, then, I urge you to read on. You’ll appreciate the story I’m about to impart.

I tried to think of a funny personal story about coffee but came up with nada. That’s because there is nothing funny about coffee in our household. Capt’n Clean and I take our coffee very, very seriously. Our day MUST start with a cup of coffee, pressed, not brewed. At our house, the first one up is “it” and has the responsibility of preparing the coffee. It’s one of those unspoken rules that screams when it is broken. If you are in a relationship, you understand.

So, I’m going to tell you the coffee story of a couple that we love and hang around with a lot. They live in Mexico, like us, and are from Canada. For the story’s sake (and their privacy) I’ll refer to them as Bob and Beth. We knew we were going to be good friends with them when we found out that they, like us, press, rather than brew.

So, Bob and Beth fell in love with Mexico, the culture, the people, the food, and of course, the coffee. They, prior to moving permanently to Mexico visited many cities and areas of this great country to find the one place that suited them best.

On one of those trips, they found a coffee vendor that was offering samples, so of course, they, with their superior coffee palettes, took a taste. They were impressed with the aroma, the richness, and the quality of the java, so they decided to buy a 20-pound burlap bag of the scrumptious beans. Of course, getting it back into Canada might present a challenge, but if you knew this couple, you wouldn’t doubt their ability to sweet talk their way into or out of just about anything.

These were the pre-covid days, but it still wasn’t easy to get produce and such across the border. Bob had bragged to his Canadian friends about what a good deal he had gotten on the magic Mexican coffee beans and promised them all samples when he returned. The customs officials charged a hefty fee, but Bob and Beth knew that it would be worth it when they were sitting on their back porch with a steaming cup of the marvelous Mexican elixir.

Bob was on coffee duty their first morning back. He was ready with a grinder on the counter and he reached down into his prized bag of beans. As he plunged his hand into the bag he came up with a fist full of…dirt! He reached a little deeper and again retrieved nothing but a big wad of dirt. He exited to the back porch, spread out a tarp, and dumped the bag, all twenty pounds worth, onto it. They had brought home a piece of Mexico, literally, with a few coffee beans scattered on top.

When he told us this story the first time, I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Capt’n Clean pointed out that it was a good thing that he didn’t let the customs agents know that he was hauling foreign soil because they might have charged him more, especially on the Mexico side of the border. He also pointed out that when they applied for permanent Mexican residency, the government would expect them to return the precious dirt like any good citizen would.

Bob is also a writer, and Beth is an artist. Both are master storytellers. We kid them all the time about what lengths they will go to come up with a funny story. When it comes to coffee, evidently, great ones.

Happy Coffee Season!