Dead to the Last Drop

by Cleo Coyle

  As for Mike Quinn, Katerina wasn’t wrong about his Washington career. Oh, sure, when the story broke about her crimes, the attorney general himself shook Mike’s hand for the cameras. But the man’s smile was plastic and when the cameras stopped rolling, it melted off.

  As a whistle-blower in a political town, Mike knew his career in DC was over. But he didn’t care. Over the next few months he wrapped things up at the Kennedy Building and I officially hired the new food and beverage director for the Village Blend, DC—my daughter, Joy, who was excited about the new challenge. Happily, her longtime boyfriend, Sergeant Franco of the NYPD, was more than willing to commute to DC for visits—and thrilled she’d given up all plans to return to Paris. Joy was back in America to stay.

  My ex-husband, on the other hand, was restless to get away, ready to go back to his global hunt for new coffees. As for me, I was looking forward to returning to my cozy, cluttered duplex above my beloved landmark coffeehouse in Greenwich Village.

  While Washington offered prestige and glamor, breathless trips to the White House, and a sumptuous home in a historic mansion, leaving it all would not be difficult.

  The reason came down to a moment Mike and I shared at Abby and Stan’s wedding.

  As the reception wound down, the newly minted husband and wife played a farewell duet for their guests, a song that told of a place they’d arrived at last—“Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

  “I have a question for you,” Mike said, his arms around me as the couple’s sweet performance came to a lyrical end. “What was that secret code you texted to Agent Cage?”

  “A profound little phrase,” I replied, “one you can’t help thinking when you’re standing in the American Stories room of the Smithsonian, gazing at Dorothy’s red shoes.”

  Mike got it. Pulling me closer, he whispered words that were more than a solution to a mystery. They were a promise for our future.

  “There’s no place like home.”

  No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.

  —L. FRANK BAUM, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

  COFFEE AND THE PRESIDENCY

  A Country Made by Coffee

  Only the United States of America can cite a dispute over a hot beverage as the reason for its founding. When the Sons of Liberty tossed imported tea into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, the harsh British response led to the American Revolution, and ultimately, to American independence.

  John Adams—Changing Habits

  After the Boston Tea Party, coffee became the patriotic drink, while tea was spurned as a “Tory’s brew.” John Adams, the nation’s second President, was taught a lesson in patriotism when he asked a Maine innkeeper to bring him “a Dish of Tea provided it has been honestly smuggled.” He was informed—harshly—that they served only coffee. In a 1774 letter to wife, Abigail, Adams wrote that the incident forced him to change his habits. “I have drank Coffee every Afternoon since, and have borne it very well. Tea must be universally renounced. I must be weaned, and the sooner, the better.”

  George Washington—Coffee Importer

  The first President of the United States enjoyed coffee before it was fashionable among patriots. Washington was importing coffee for personal consumption as early as 1770. In his final years, he became something of a gourmet. In 1799 our Founding Father was searching for coffee beans from the “port of Mocha,” then considered the finest beans in the world.

  Thomas Jefferson—The Coffee Urn

  Thomas Jefferson’s love of coffee was legendary. He called it “the favorite drink of the civilized world.” Like Washington, Jefferson was an importer, preferring beans from the East and West Indies. He gifted silver coffee urns made in Paris to close friends and political allies. One of those historic urns is on permanent display at Jefferson’s home at Monticello. This exquisite example of Parisian silversmithing was purchased by Thomas Jefferson in 1789.

  Andrew Jackson—Hooked on Caffeine

  “Old Hickory” was the nation’s seventh President, a tough former military leader who won the love and admiration of his troops. Jackson was also the first Chief Executive to cop to an addiction to coffee, as well as another all-American product. “Doctor,” he told his physician, “I can do anything you think proper, except give up coffee and tobacco.”

  Abraham Lincoln—The Last Cup

  The President who preserved the union in the nation’s most tragic time was indifferent to well-prepared food and drink, which could be attributed to his frontier upbringing. A man of simple tastes, Lincoln was said to prefer “apples and hot coffee” to everything else. His well-known quote about his favorite beverage may be apocryphal: When served an unsatisfactory brew, Lincoln remarked, “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” A solemn symbol of Lincoln’s love of coffee is a gold embossed White House china cup from which he took his final sip. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as Lincoln was dressing for an evening at Ford’s Theatre, he left that cup on a windowsill. Hours later the sixteenth President was fatally shot, and a servant preserved the cup as a relic of that tragic night. The cup was passed on to Lincoln’s eldest son, and preserved as a family heirloom. In 1952 it was gifted to the Smithsonian.

  Rutherford B. Hayes—Absence Makes a President Fonder

  The nineteenth President of the United States learned to love coffee during the American Civil War, when the Ohio native fought for the Union and was wounded five times. At one particularly low point during the conflict, Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and his troops had only bad water to drink, and no food at all. Finally a supply sergeant delivered hot coffee and a warm meal to his troops. From that day forward, America’s nineteenth President always cherished and appreciated his daily brew.

  Theodore Roosevelt—“Good to the Last Drop”

  America’s twenty-sixth President was served Maxwell House coffee at The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, in Nashville, and was said to declare the brew “good to the last drop,” a pithy phrase that has remained the product’s tagline to this day. For a short time, Roosevelt’s face even decorated the can. And why not? Teddy Roosevelt loved coffee and drank up to a gallon a day. His cup was “more in the nature of a bathtub” according to his sons, and he put up to seven lumps of sugar in each cup. Theodore Roosevelt’s affection for coffee was passed on to his sons Kermit, Ted, and Archie, and his daughter Ethel. Together these siblings brought fresh-roasted beans and European coffeehouse culture to America, through a chain of coffeehouses all over New York City—more than half a century before anyone heard the name “Starbucks.”

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt—Do It Yourself

  FDR was particularly fussy about his coffee. The White House kitchen actually roasted fresh beans for the President, and a coffeemaker was placed on the President’s breakfast tray “so he could regulate the brewing to his satisfaction.” During World War II, when coffee was rationed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to stretch his allotment by reusing the grinds. The results were so unsatisfactory that the thirty-second President gave up coffee altogether.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower—D-Day and Beyond

  On June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower spent the day “drinking endless cups of coffee” while waiting for battlefield reports. The burden of leadership was heavy. A casualty rate of 75 percent was predicted, and Winston Churchill was convinced the invasion would fail. To cope with the stress, Eisenhower drank fifteen to twenty cups of coffee and smoked four packs of cigarettes each day. Despite high blood pressure, insomnia, and migraines, Eisenhower continued his caffeine and nicotine habit after he became the nation’s thirty-fourth President. In 1954, alarmed by a spike in coffee prices, President Eisenhower ordered a Federal Trade Commission probe.


  John F. Kennedy—Coffee with a Kennedy

  During his U.S. Senate campaign, John F. Kennedy’s mother, Rose, started “Coffee with the Kennedys,” a chance to meet and greet the future President. The handsome young politician targeted women voters, and with the help of the prominent women in his family, coffee klatches were staged across Massachusetts. As a junior senator living in Georgetown, those same coffee klatches, now orchestrated by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, raised JFK’s profile inside the Beltway, which ultimately led to his election as the nation’s thirty-fifth President. After she became First Lady, Mrs. Kennedy revolutionized the way men and women socialized at the White House. Before Jackie, men retired to one room for their coffee while women were sent to another—which cut women off from important discussions of the day. Mrs. Kennedy put an end to that coffee service segregation forever.

  Lyndon Baines Johnson—One Finger on the Button

  Famously, Lyndon Baines Johnson had four buttons installed on his desk in the Oval Office. The buttons were marked Coffee, Tea, Coke, and Fresca. Historians agree that he pressed the button marked Fresca more than any other. Finally, a soda dispenser was installed in the Oval Office to satisfy the thirty-sixth President’s cravings.

  George H. W. Bush—Use It or Lose It

  The forty-first President consumed at least ten cups of coffee a day for most of his adult life. Barbara Bush said he brewed the morning coffee himself until his duties as the Commander in Chief took precedence over domestic chores. When President Bush was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat in 1991, he was forced to give up caffeine. “He’s not happy with that decaf,” reported a White House spokesman, and soon the doctors allowed Bush to enjoy regular coffee again. After he left office, Bush resumed his normal routine. But Barbara Bush revealed during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that the former President had not made his own coffee for so long, he’d forgotten how.

  ABBY LANE’S PLAYLIST

  THE JAZZ SPACE * VILLAGE BLEND, DC

  Would you like to hear some of the music that inspired Abigail Parker’s headliner concert at the Village Blend’s Jazz Space or find out where Cleo Coyle watches jazz, streaming online every night, directly from New York’s Greenwich Village? Visit Cleo’s new online Jazz Space to learn more at coffeehousemystery.com.

  Set One

  “Let’s Fall in Love”

  “Tonight”

  “A Little Jazz Exercise”

  Set Two

  “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”

  “Black Coffee”

  “Someday My Prince Will Come”

  “Someone to Watch Over Me”

  Set Three

  “Our Love Is Here to Stay”

  “Love Ballade”

  “Over the Rainbow”

  “America the Beautiful”

  “Who Wants to Live Forever”

  “Fix You”

  “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”

  Jazz Resources

  Learn more about jazz the way Abby did . . .

  Visit jazz legends online:

  Wynton Marsalis—wyntonmarsalis.org

  Chick Corea—chickcorea.com

  See Live Jazz in DC’s Georgetown

  Blues Alley

  1073 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

  Washington, DC

  bluesalley.com/index.cfm

  See Live Jazz in New York City

  Jazz at Lincoln Center—jazz.org

  The Blue Note—bluenote.net/newyork/index.shtml

  Smalls—smallsjazzclub.com

  FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT RESOURCES

  Because truth matters, Mrs. Dubois . . . and a truth about our past can alter how we look at the present and move forward in the future.

  —SERGEANT STANLEY “STICKS” MCGUIRE, USA, RETIRED

  What is FOIA? Enacted on July 4, 1966, and taking effect one year later, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) “provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records, except to the extent that such records (or portions of them) are protected from public disclosure . . .”

  Frequently Asked Questions About the FOIA:

  foia.gov/faq.html

  National Archives:

  archives.gov/open/

  Electronic Records Archives:

  archives.gov/era/index.html

  The National Security Archive:

  nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/the_archive.html

  According to the National Security Archive’s website, it was founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check “rising government secrecy.” The organization serves as an investigative journalism center, a research institute on international affairs, and a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents—“the world’s largest nongovernmental collection” according to the Los Angeles Times. The National Security Archive is also “the leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.”

  Open Government at the National Archives:

  archives.gov/open/

  RECIPES AND TIPS FROM THE VILLAGE BLEND

  Visit Cleo Coyle’s virtual Village Blend at coffeehousemystery.com for even more recipes, including:

  * Luther’s Great American Glazed Donuts

  * Luther’s Bourbon Street Brownies

  * Clare’s “Hawaiian” Chocolate Chip Cookies

  * Madame’s Pecan Sandies (Sables!)

  * Clare’s Oatmeal Cookie Muffins

  * Clare’s Farmhouse Peach Muffins

  * Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

  * Parker House Rolls

  * Luther’s Honey-Chili Chicken

  * Easy Smoky Chipotle Dip

  * Luther’s Mini Meat Loaves with Smashed Baby Reds and Roasted Garlic Gravy

  * Luther’s No-Churn Ice Cream (Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Coffee)

  and more . . .

  RECIPES

  Music, food, and coffee are universal languages.

  —CLARE COSI

  Clare Cosi’s Best Blueberry Muffins

  The humble yet beautiful blueberry, native to North America, is beloved across the USA. From Maine to California, nearly every diner, coffee shop, and bake shop has a version of the blueberry muffin. Now the Village Blend does, too. When a rush of new customers left Clare with a sold-out pastry case, she swung into action, creating this instant classic.

  So why does Clare call these her Best Blueberry Muffins? Because this recipe produces impressive results with little fuss and few ingredients. It’s the best not because it’s the most elaborate, but because it’s the kind of recipe she uses again and again. These are not cupcakes pretending to be muffins—with more sugary cake than berries. Blueberries are a healthful superfood, and they are packed into these muffins. The muffins will bake up beautifully, too. No gray batter. And the crumb is tender with a taste like pound cake, yet you don’t need to drag out your mixer to cream butter into sugar. The secret is in the use of whole milk (not skim or low fat), and in the combination of vanilla and lemon flavorings. So be sure not to leave those out, and may you . . . eat with blueberry joy!

  Makes 6 standard muffins

  1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

  2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

  1 egg

  ½ cup whole milk (or half-and-half, aka light cream, or heavy cream)

  ¼ cup vegetable or canola oil

  ¼ cup white, granulated sugar

  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  ½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest (grated lemon peel, no white pith)

  ¼ teaspoon kosher salt (or ⅛ teaspoon table salt)

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1 cup all-purpose flour

  1 to 2 tablespoons coarse finishing sugar such as turbinado or Demerara or a white coarse sugar to sprinkle on before baking (optional)

  Step 1�
��Prep oven and muffin pan: Preheat oven at least 30 minutes to 375ºF. Line 6 muffin cups with paper holders (yellow makes a nice presentation); lightly coat papers with nonstick spray.

  Step 2—Prep blueberries: If using fresh blueberries, de-stem, wash, drain, and pat dry. They can be a little moist, no worries. If using frozen blueberries, use them right out of the freezer, do not thaw. Gently toss the fresh or still-frozen blueberries in the 2 teaspoons of flour. Take care not to crush the berries as you toss them, keep them whole. The flour will absorb excess juice during baking and prevent your muffins from turning gray. Set aside.

  Step 3—Create batter with one-bowl mixing method: Crack egg into a mixing bowl and gently beat with a whisk. Add milk, oil, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt, and whisk until well blended. Now add baking powder and whisk very well, until dissolved. Switching to a spoon or spatula, mix in the flour until all the raw flour disappears and a lumpy batter forms. Do not overmix at this stage or you will develop the gluten in the flour and your muffins will be tough instead of tender. Finally, gently fold in the flour-tossed blueberries, again, taking care not to crush them. Keep them whole.

  Step 4—Prep for baking: This batter makes 6 standard muffins. Divide it up evenly among your paper-lined (and lightly sprayed) muffin cups. Clare does not use finishing sugar. But you may like this addition. If using a coarse finishing sugar, sprinkle over each unbaked muffin top . . .

  Step 5—Bake in your well-preheated 375ºF oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins are done when tops just begin to become light golden brown.

  Note: The muffins are delicious with or without finishing sugar, but beware: although muffins with sugar on top will stay crunchy the first day, the sugared tops will go soggy on you if you wrap them in plastic for storage. So if you’re baking these a few days in advance of serving, leave the extra sugar off.