Bad coffee and Black Friday

I was, to my everlasting embarrassment, out shopping at 12:01 this morning. More than once I was thinking, "Uh, WTF?" But, you know, Black Friday starts early in our house. On this Thanksgiving weekend, at least. And much of the stuff we purchased was in an effort to get an early start on Christmas shopping.

Shopping for others, I emphasize. If we had been shopping for me, we'd have been at the Apple Store, Best Buy or even Huppin's. Maybe later today. Still can't decide between an iPad 4 or an iPad Mini. First-world problems, don't you know.

Kind of like those I faced earlier this week after having ordered my standard drink - 16-ounce americano, double-cup, extra room - at a little coffee shop in Brooklyn called, strangely enough, WTF Coffee Lab. The barista was courteous enough, though he insisted on putting in the cream (huh?) and then skimped on it. The coffee was strong enough (an absolute necessity), but it just didn't taste right to me - even after I had him add more half-and-half.

People have been preaching that we all need to buy local. And coffee drinkers are especially vocal about how only cretins ignore local roasteries, etc. I'm as big a fan of supporting local business as anyone. But if the local roasteries, like WTF, don't serve you in the way you want, then you owe it to yourself to go where you can get what you pay for.

Unlike our Black Friday experience, when the crowds of people were intent but friendly enough, I found this particular coffee-buying venture curiously dissatisfying. I hadn't drunk half of it before dumping it in a street-side garbage can.

WTF, indeed.