Sheila and Her Coffee Habits.

Sheila is my beautiful cousin who loves coffee as much as I do and that's one thing we have in common that somehow brought us closer.

I am also aware that everyone has their preference while taking coffee, hence the adage comes to mind "One man's food is another poison," I am also aware that life is full of varieties and people love to explore.

However some years back when I decided to spend the weekend with Sheila I was perplexed with her coffee habit.

That morning, she woke pretty early, as early as 4:00 am and I began to hear the kettle whistling and cup clattering since I was a light sleeper I woke up and felt the urge to pee, after peeing it wasn't easy to fall back asleep so I headed to the kitchen to chit-chat with her and ask what she was doing in the kitchen by 4:00 am since I knew she wasn't going to work pretty early until 8 am.

"What's up?" I asked with curiosity, "Oh you're awake? I just want to have my coffee, it's nothing," she replied innocently and I couldn't probe her why she decided to take her coffee by that time because I knew there was no significant time to take coffee so I just sat beside her and watch how she prepared her coffee while we had a chit-chat in between with some chuckles here and there.

Sheila brewed her coffee and mixed it with tea in a cup and even added olive oil to it, and after that, she kept it in the freezer to be frozen until 6 am when she was fully awake.

I was perplexed because why do you have to waste your time boiling water for your coffee only to keep it in the freezer? More than that I was even baffled because we were in the harmattan season, the harmattan season is known for its coldness, I believe the essence of coffee is to provide warmth and comfort, for me I love the warmth the steam brings and the aroma accompanied by it so I find it odd to take iced coffee instead and so early with something so freezing?

Sheila didn't just baffle me in the morning but also at night when she took her coffee just before bedtime guess what, not even a cup but two cups, I mean coffee is meant to keep us alert mentally and agile for a longer period and I felt taking it immediately at bedtime could disrupt her sleep but then it is what it is.

Throughout my stay in her house, I watched her prepare her coffee on different days, some days she even added a very hot spice like cloves and ginger to her coffee and a pinch of salt afterwards she froze it again and my head could not even process why she preferred iced coffee even after adding spice to it.

Well, like I said earlier, we cannot love the same thing although it did baffle me so much, I came to realize that some people have different methods of enjoying their coffee and they also have their different traditions and coffee rituals.