Nescafe 3 in 1 TURBO, for when you need a little something extra.
Before March of 2010 I’d never drunk instant coffee, never even had a taste. Sure, I’d had the cheap stuff. Folgers was a mainstay in my suburban childhood home. The garage was lined with the empty cans. My father used them to store nuts, bolts, nails and screws. As I got older, about high school age, I developed a taste for slightly better coffee, although I should say that it was my younger brother at age 10 who first asked for a French press for his birthday. It was rare for us then to drink coffee before school, but on the weekends we’d open a fresh bag of beans, grind them down for the press and enjoy a pitch black cup with our eggs and bacon.
By the time I entered college I was drinking two cups a day, sometimes more. Coffee was a necessary evil. Luckily, living in Portland, it was easy to get my hands on the really good stuff. I was a regular at Stumptown’s S.E. Division location, and from time to time I’d make it into the S.W. 3rd shop. My love affair with it continued a few years later when I moved downtown and got a job at Oregon Business Magazine. The office on S.W. Broadway wasn’t far from the Ace Hotel location, where I spent many a lunch hour sipping freshly pressed Hair Bender and preparing for interviews.
My palate used to quality java, I panicked when I arrived in Ukraine almost two years ago to begin my Peace Corps service and found my only coffee options to be Nescafe and Jacobs Original or 3 in 1. I knew that any coffee sold in small, one-serving packets at the check-out counter would never compare to the organic, dark-roasted grinds I had back home.
But you’d be surprised how well your palate adapts when your choices are shit and shit. Now, every morning with my two eggs over easy on toast, I drink a tall mug of it – and without cringing.
That said, there have been care packages from my parents over the past couple years that came with some of Portland’s finest coffee. And when they do, I make it last, saving it for those slow, heavy-eyed mornings when the snow drifts come up to my knees and the thermometer reads just 10 degrees.
I recently read the articles you have written for Matador. I am also a PCV going to Ukraine this March 2012. I just thought I would let you know that I have found your blog and articles very helpful in prep for service. Thanks, Erin
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have been to Ukraine twice and spent two weeks each time. The first time it was just Jacobs or Nescafe. I suffered immensely since I was used to great coffee. The second time I wised up and brought a pound of ground Caribou Mahogany with me. Sure I had to make “cowboy coffee” but it was a hell of a lot better than the instant crap.
Greg
Hey Erin.
Glad you enjoyed the articles and found them helpful. Good luck with training come March. Maybe we’ll run into each other before I leave in June.
Chris
I know exactly what you mean about having to make “cowboy coffee.” And yes, just about anything is better than the instant crap. That said, after two years I’m able to deal with it. But I’m very much looking forward to be back in PDX, where I can walk into just about anywhere and get a more than decent cup of joe.
I am an RPCV Ukraine from Group 17. I never developed a taste for the instant coffees. I did develop an appreciation for tea though. Problem is…I can’t find the Ahmad Krepki anywhere in the States. Send me a care package and I’ll send you one!
Ken
Every now and then I google Artemovsk and your blog came up this time. SO FUNNY! I was in Artemovsk almost four years ago when I adopted my son from the orphanage just off the Lenin square. I spent a month in the crappy hotel kitty corner to Lenin. I drank way too much of the Artemovsk wine, and my husband still craves the Ukrainian beer. Is the little cafe behind the liquor store with a flower on the side that faces Mr. Artem still there? I left notes in their English menu! There was a rather large flux of Americans at when we were there but I never hear of Americans adopting from the orphanage there anymore.
Anyway best of luck with your work and I’ll stalk your blog.
Yes, the cafe with the flower – Lakomka – is still here. I’ll look for your notes inside the next time I visit.
You’ve been gone for a couple of years so I thought you might be interested to learn that we now have a drive-thru coffee kiosk aptly named “Cowboy Coffee” on Main Street just blocks from downtown Molalla. Guess what they serve? Stumptown! Crazy, huh?
Dad