Mama Kat Prompt: Vices Worth Keeping

Yup, time for another tale prompted by Mama Kat. Today's prompt of choice is #5: "What is the one 'vice' you can't give up?"

   Quite a number of years ago, in the mid 90's, we visited some friends, who were living in North Carolina at the time and what makes it memorable is the wife declaring that she, "had to give up eating chocolate because it had caffeine in it."  Apparently she was under doctor's orders not to have any sort of caffeine. Why, I don't know, but back then there was a general "caffeine scare" going on. Of course, a lot of scientific back-peddling has occurred since then, as it so often does, and science now declares coffee and chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, as having health benefits. Though those fancy coffee drinks full of sugar and all kinds of high-calorie stuff other then plain coffee are fattening rather then healthy.

     I mention this, because if I'm going to call anything I unrepentantly enjoy a "vice," then it's coffee and chocolate. I love coffee and chocolate and would never give either up. Not for any reason. I thought that wife crazy, though I never asked how much chocolate she was consuming. There is caffeine in chocolate, but it's such a minuscule amount, it would have next to zero effect---unless one is eating pounds of it a day! Hershey.com has a comparative chart of caffeine quantities and 9 milk chocolate kisses contain a whole 11 milligram's of caffeine in total. I eat maybe 2 kisses a day, which barely equals a whole milligram of caffeine per kiss. Now one cup of drip-brewed coffee has anywhere from 65 to 120 milligrams of caffeine per cup, probably depending on size of cup. Brewed tea ranges from 20 to 90 milligrams, probably depending on strength and size of cup. Compare that to caffeinated energy drinks, which run 150 to 200 milligrams per drink or more and are currently under scrutiny for their questionable and unregulated artificial ingredients. At least coffee and chocolate come from nature's bounty, since both come from certain seeds of certain plants or trees commonly grown in tropical climates. After all, Earth is the only planet with chocolate.

      However, I don't drink coffee for caffeine. I drink it, because I like the taste. I like a plain, drip-brewed cup of coffee with teaspoon of Splenda and a teaspoon of dry creamer. I do like flavored beans, such as hazelnut or chocolate, and generally shake a heavy dash of cinnamon onto the grounds before brewing, because cinnamon is very healthful. Does it help wake my brain up in the mornings? Certainly. Am I addicted? Nope. I can go without coffee without side effect. I also generally have 2 couple dark chocolate kisses once, maybe twice a day---and I have no plans of giving either coffee or dark chocolate up any time in the near or distant future!  Such small pleasures in life are worth holding onto, in my opinion.