Tasty Legal Stimulant

Several weeks ago I informed you that I bought some Douwe Egberts coffee online because, well, apparently America cannot sell good coffee. My Douwe Egberts order arrived several short days after the sale - much to my delight.

At first I thought we might have a little problem. Sadly, the expiration date on the first bag of grounds I inspected stated it would only be good through March 2008. I only took the time to notice the date because there happened to be a “collectie” sticker on the front of the bag advertising that one could gather a collection of these game pieces from bags of Douwe Egberts to obtain one’s very own party china (for use at Christmas).

(And, yes, a Dutch person really could collect enough stickers from 5 kilo bags of coffee in a matter of months to possess an entire place setting of “party ware” due to the excessive amount of coffee consumed in the culture.)

(Oh. And, yes, I can still decipher the Dutch language, more or less, much to my surprise.)

I digress.

Since the advertisement was for products relating to Christmas, I decided I needed to check to see how old this coffee really was.

So, this particular bag expires this month. (Maybe this is why I got such a great deal on it.) After my initial bit of anger at paying good money for something that will only be good for another four weeks, I decided to lighten up. Heck, I have been yearning for this coffee for a year, so is it all that unimaginable that I might just polish off the entire bag in a month?

Now that a few weeks have gone by, we’ve hosted family in our home, I’ve had our Bible study group over a couple times, and I have rediscovered the enjoyment of a fabulous cup of coffee in the morning, I can report that it is, indeed, not unimaginable. The coffee now dwindles dangerously low.

Good thing I have that second bag, which, thankfully, does not expire until sometime later in the year.

All in all, I am most satisfied with my Douwe Egberts purchase.