Green Mountain Redux

Yesterday morning on my way to work, I stopped at the D'Agostino's on 38th and Third for a pint of ice cream to accompany the fresh strawberries and sauce I was bringing to a friend's home for dessert last night. D'Agostino's was a departure from my usual Dunkin' Donuts coffee stop (medium decaf, light with lots of milk) and so I was glad to see the coffee and fixin's table close to the store's entrance, and even more pleased to see that the insulated jugs touted the Green Mountain Coffee label.

With that first sip came a flood of memories of other morning stops for Green Mountain Coffee, oh so many mornings ago. Back then, I was right next door to the Green Mountain State, literally, and routinely visited the Foodstop on Route 12A in West Lebanon, New Hampshire for my coffee, a copy of the New York Times (there wasn't much internet back then and the Valley News was the only paper that could be home delivered up there) and, about once a week, a gas fill-up for the car, before I crossed the Connecticut River into White River Junction, Vermont and continued my commute down rural Interstate 91. (Foodstop's the kind of place where, were I so inclined, I could easily have added a lottery ticket, a pack of cigarettes, a six-pack of beer or an extra large bag of Doritos to my order and nobody would have batted an eye.)

This morning, I again stepped out of the Third Avenue urban throng into D'Agostino's for a cup of that Green Mountain brew. Not only is it great coffee (this from a Dunkin' diehard) that evokes memories of me in a former life, but it's a bargain, too. In pure dollars and cents, it just makes sense: a 16-ounce cup at D'Ag is $1.51...at Dunkin' it's $2.05. Gotta love that Yankee ingenuity...and that Green Mountain coffee!