My sister Martha, one of my favorite people in the world, always brightens my day, but she improved my mornings, on the occasion of my most recent birthday, by getting me a six-month susbcription to Peet's Coffee -- a different roast every two weeks, delivered to my doorstep.
The most recent caffeinated confection is Major Dickason's Blend, which, according to some coffeeholics, has attained near-cult status and which, according to Peet's web site, is their most popular blend.
Midwestern mornings in February are routinely brutal affairs. This has been an especially gray, snowy and cold winter, so, in my snow-madness, I have taken to greeting Major Dickason by name each morning, in a poor Scottish brogue recalled from my acting days:
"Stand at attention, Major Dickason!," I'll say, stumbling toward the coffee-maker. Or: "Top o' the mornin', Major! Got yer work cut out for ye today!"
Turns out that Key Dickason was a retired Army officer and a regular at Peet's flagship store at the corner of Walnut and Vine streets in Berkeley. At Peet's you can create your own blend; Major Dickason (who was actually a lieutenant) was one of the first, and most successful, to do so, working with founder Alfred Peet to perfect Major Dickason's blend in 1969.
When you search for Dickasons online you run into some pretty creative people, like this bunch, which features both yarmulkes and cowboy hats, and whose artists create some very stirring works, many of them Jewish-themed. They have a bunch of their own web sites, and are somehow connected to this very cool-looking synagogue in Tucson.
Are they related to Key Dickason . . . ? Well, there's a link to Major Dickason's blend on their "Dickason links" page.
For some reason, I like knowing that there's a connection between my coffee and people who create beautiful works of Jewish art, are committed to spiritually awake and searching synagogues, and who also wear cowboy hats.
Shabbat Shalom.
--T.A.
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