Tuesday, August 28, 2007

caffeinated

For kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, I went to Summit Hill School. Except for James, who came from England, and Viveka, who came from Sweden, I don’t remember much about the other kids. I vaguely recall that our readers featured Jimmy (the boy), Sue (the girl) and Pepper (the dog) and I know there were two huge fish tanks built into the wall outside the gym. But what I remember vividly, longingly, achingly is coffee milk.

In our cafeteria, at the end of the metal counter where we pushed our trays, there were three kinds of milk arranged in rows on the shelves. I usually refused to eat the food and I always ignored the chocolate milk and the plain milk. What I craved was the coffee milk, in its beautiful ecru containers. Oddly enough, none of my classmates liked coffee milk. But I loved it. It was sugary and creamy and delicious. It tasted like a cold heavily sweetened latte. I drank one every school day for three years, with the result that I'm walking anecdotal evidence for the old wives' tale that coffee stunts your growth.

Try it. Just mix two tablespoons of this tasty syrup (sold only by the case) with eight ounces of cold milk. Lots of sugar and lots of caffeine. What more could anyone possibly want?

16 comments:

meg said...

I have never heard of such a thing--and for kids, in school? Then again, while growing up in the U.K., it was not usual for me to drink tea as a young child. I don't know if that still goes on there, or not? I seem to recall my Nana giving me a little brandy when I had a cold--I suspect that this isn't common practice anymore either!

The latte sounds delicious, and who doesn't love sugar and caffeine?

Bon said...

when i lived in Korea, every hallway in every institution was filled with machines that made "coffee" in little tiny paper cups, like a Dixie cup, and it was a sugar & caffeine extravaganza, that stuff. your syrup brought it back fondly...

and now that i think about it, if you chilled it, i bet kids would love it. i still can't imagine teaching kids who'd been drinking that at lunch, though...ack.

Beruriah said...

I remember getting that stuff once unintentionally out of the milk crate. My tastes were not so adult as yours, apparently, because it wasn't a happy accident.

S said...

We had coffee milk as one of the milk choices dispensed out of huge stainless-steel containers at my university. I drank it every day. It is most definitely the source of my current love affair with caffeine, though unfortunately it trained me to like my lattes sweet. Type II diabetes, here I come!

L said...

Wow, you had a lot of options. We just had "regular" and "chocolate," so, of course, I subsisted on chocolate milk for most of elementary school.

I really liked the cafeteria food, which tells you how well my mom cooked. I still find myself longing for their pizza every once in a while.

Furrow said...

I've never seen such a thing, but yummmmmmmmmmmmm............

EmmaL said...

Wow - I have never heard of this kind of milk! My dad told me when I was 8 that if I drank coffee it would stunt my growth - so I started drinking coffee at 8 (and my parents were where you wonder...they let me!). I drank coffee from the time I was 8 until part way through law school. I was disappointed - I'm 5 foot 9. Then again, maybe I would have been really tall - ha ha. Anyway, what a funny memory! I used to eat chocolate chip cookies dipped in my black coffee nearly every day for breakfast all the way through high school!

Anonymous said...

I remember the ice cream bars from my school cafeteria. I have never found them in any store and still crave them to this day.

thirtysomething said...

Heh.
This sounds totally heavenly...my addiction to coffee as strong as it is.
But, since I am going through a sugar cleanse and also don't drink milk, I am SOL.
Enjoy though!

Mrs. Collins said...

Life is so unfair. I never had this, only whole milk and chocolate milk. It reminds me of cafe su da (sp?). It's served in Vietnamese restaurants. It's basically chicory coffe in a french press over a glass with condensed milk at the bottom. You are supposed to pour it over ice but I never do. Oh it's so wonderful and sweet. I started drinking coffee too young also. I can remember my Jr. high teacher asking me why all my homework papers had coffee rings on them. She refused to believe me that it was my coffee.

Mrs. Collins said...

Oh, forgot to add.. it did NOT stunt my growth. I'm six feet tall.

niobe said...

thirtysomething: It would probably be very good with soy milk or almond milk, but there's still that sugar problem...

painted maypole said...

My MIL refused to let my husband drink anything with caffeine as a child, saying it would stunt his growth. He is now 6'5", and is therefore the perfect compliments to your walking evidence.

I joke that if we give MQ caffeine now we may be able to keep her this young and small forever.

Doughnut said...

I never had coffee milk per se but since 2nd grade I have had coffee with milk and sugar...didn't matter to me if it was hot or cold. I always liked it and the thing was I could drink a cup and then go to sleep right after. I guess I must have built up a caffeine tolerance! BTW...I am 6'0 so it didn't do much to stunt my growth either.

AJW5403 said...

I have never heard of coffee milk. When I was in school your only choice was Full milk, 2% or Chocolate. I love coffee and that milk just sounds yummy. I will have to try it out.

Christine said...

i've tried this--good stuff