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When you talk about McCain, do you feel the blood coursing through your veins?  Does hearing Obama’s name make you want to shout out in unconcealed patriotism?  Do you have to have that morning cup of coffee before you can even think about the presidential race?

Well, then you’ll love what the folks at Coffeewiz have cooked up for you.  For all of you coffee lovers who own the miracle of modern coffee known as a Keurig machine, you now have the choice of not only having your morning cup o’ Joe, but also telling everyone waiting in line at the coffee machine exactly who you support in this race:

Yes, candidate Kcups, folks.  Pick your favorite candidate without worries since both have the excellent Coffee People Doughnut Shop Kcups nestled within.  Now, of course there’s no hiding who I’d like to win this particular poll, but don’t let that discourage you. Show your support today and vote with your coffee mug!

Have your coffee and Twitter, too!

This is must have been what they had in mind when they made the Twitsig Mug:

Take your favorite Tweet and have it emblazoned onto your mug for all to see for however long the cup stays in one piece.  But I’d suggest you be careful about which Tweet you put on the mug.

Yes folks, the end of humanity is nigh. Get ‘em while they’re hot.

Thanks to Single Serve Coffee for unearthing this.

Sometimes you want your coffee table to be informative as well as being a place you can put your blessed brew down. If this is so, then this is the coffee table for you:

Yes, that’s right my readers. This is a coffee table with the periodic table. Even better is that in each little square you have an actual sample of the element in question. I think you have to take their word on it that you really do have hydrogen, helium and the other noble gases in there, but I digress. And as far as those radioactive elements and elements with a half life of microseconds only produced in particle accelerators, I think those’ll be nicely indicated by an icon instead.

You can find out more about it (and it’s astronomical price of $,9,500!) at Element Displays. Thanks to Gizmodo for finding this.

I’m taking a break from writing my novel today to make a confession.

I love coffee.

While I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise to you, I just felt I had to say it aloud. Coffee’s the one hot beverage I pursue with a fervor reserved for such things as politics, religion, crusades and reality TV. So imagine my great shame when I could not brew a pot of decent coffee to save my life.

Yes, I love coffee and yet how to produce a perfect cup via a home brewer eludes me.

But there is hope for me. Before my ancestors turned their backs on me in dishonor, I found coffee nirvana in the confines of a ridiculously expensive apartment complex leasing office: The Keurig Brewing System.

It was amazing. The coffee came in small salad dressing-like plastic cups with a foil top. All you had to do was to put the cup in the brewer, close the holder, hit a button for the amount of water you want to use, and throw the spent cup away. Presto! Instant perfect cup of coffee.

The best part is, unlike the limited selection, and sometimes lower quality, that comes with those other systems out there, the Keurig is made by a company that only sells the system, not coffee (well, not until they were acquired by Green Mountain Coffee, but I digress). With that in mind they have offerings from some of the best boutique brewers out there including Diedrich Coffee, Coffee People, Caribou Coffee, Green Mountain Coffee, and the list goes on. Oh and did I forget to mention a great selection of teas, too? (No Darjeeling, unfortunately)

“What about blends they don’t carry?” Ah, well they have that covered. You can get a My K-Cup which lets you put your own coffee in there and then brew it. Best of all there are lines inside the metal basket to ensure you get a consistent cup every time you brew.

Coffee perfection a cup at a time!

So now I can grind my own blends (combining single-origin coffees after running them through a burr grinder) and enjoy them whenever I want. I even made a Colombian/Guatemalan blend for my own wedding as a favor. A nice way to represent our own respective nationalities.

I know there are other single serve coffee systems out there. What sort of experiences have you had with them? I’m curious to hear some more perspectives, especially when it comes to other systems out there.

Another Friday’s here and once more we head on over to talk about more caffeine-related subjects. This time, I’d like to focus on something that is just as important as getting that perfect cup of coffee: the coffee table.

I bet you’re wondering why the big deal about a table? Well, this isn’t just any ol’ table. We’re talking about a piece of furniture in your home designed with the express purpose of holding your coffee cup or mug at the optimum level for consumption. They even put coffee in the name to tell you just what it was meant for.

Now most of you are probably thinking: “So what? It’s just a short long table.” Wrong! There are so many different designs out there to celebrate this centerpiece of our living space. Like this one:

Now that is a coffee table all your friends will be talking about.

Thanks to the guys at Single Serve Coffee on finding this gem.

Content’s been a little light this week, mostly due to the my trying to finish both my thesis novel and getting over what I’d picked up at Residency (no, not writing tips). But I would be remiss if I didn’t give you another caffeine-flavored post on Friday since even though I enjoy working, I have to get up from the keyboard to make my blessed brew.

But sometimes the chain of a writer is heavy indeed and when my muse is sitting on my back forcing me to stay I have to ask my beautiful wife to make some coffee for me. What happens you ask if she doesn’t know how I like my coffee, or maybe that I might want some other hot, tasty beverage? I have an answer for that also, behold the glory of the Drink Selector Mug

With this marvelous device I can wordlessly transmit to others exactly what sort of beverage I wish and how it should be prepared to my exacting specifications. It is the ultimate in silent caffeinated-writer communication! And at a paltry $24.00 the price is right, also.

Now, if I could only get my wife to get into the office to see the cup, that’s another issue.

Thanks to Single Serve Coffee for finding this great office accessory.

And welcome to this first installment of Coffee Break Friday.

As you’ve probably guessed, I am a coffee lover. Nothing gets me going in the morning like a good cup of coffee… All right several good cups of coffee. And since I enjoy coffee so much, and find it vital to my creative process, I felt that I’d share with you some insights into the beans and brews I hold dear.

JavaPop

For this first installment I’d like to talk about a blending of the best of two worlds of beverages. JavaPop is a combination of soda and coffee. If that isn’t a revelation from the heavens then I don’t know what is. After reading about it on SingleServeEspresso.com, I decided to procure some for my own enjoyment.

It comes in multiple flavors, but I find that I liked the vanilla one. Thankfully the coffee flavor isn’t overwhelming like some other coffee-flavored items. And best of all, it’s made from all natural ingredients, including fair trade coffee from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Although it would have been great if they had used coffee from Diedrich Coffee, but you can’t win all the time.

While not technically a morning drink, it’s great to have as you work through the day and you need a little cold caffeine pick-me-up with some fizz on the side.