Today is International Coffee Day, making it the perfect time to express my gratitude to this longtime love. Coffee and I have a very long relationship. I got hooked as a toddler when my grandfather first let me sip his sweet, milky coffee one Sunday after church, and it was love at first taste. If coffee truly does stunt your growth (there’s no evidence), I wouldn’t trade my early coffee-drinking habits for a few more inches.

In 1994, my best friend Erik and I got our licenses, and we were finally free to explore the world. What better way to do that than by discovering coffees with exotic names from far-off lands? We found a cosmopolitan coffee shop, Cherrypickers in Boardman, Ohio, in our otherwise rural area where the barista educated us on coffee that had been turned into awe-inspiring, beautiful inventions. Before Starbucks or the internet had the chance, this trailblazer taught me what a latte was.

The coffee shop experience made me want to have my own Cherrypickers, so I asked my parents for an espresso machine. Then I asked them to help me set up a bar in the basement, and soon I had my own coffee shop. I made drinks for everyone who visited and hung out with my friends there (just the ones as weird as me).

As I’ve grown older, my loyalty to coffee has never waned. When I married a Brit, whose allegiances, of course, belonged to tea and whose idea of a good cup of coffee was Nescafé, I threw a minor tantrum when tea was strongly suggested as the first beverage of the day in our new marital arrangement. Life choices were questioned.

What’s the best way for a fancy hotel to get my business? Have a Nespresso machine. I have a Ziploc bag filled with various Nespresso pods I’ve accumulated from hotels, so when I finally feel rich enough to buy my own machine, I’ll save at least some money on the pods.

Forget about buying Kahlúa. I made my own coffee liqueur. White Russians and espresso martinis abound.

One of my favorite places is the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle. It’s the epitome of coffee luxury, the Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory of coffee, and a place where I will happily pay whatever they ask to sit at their bar and enjoy a coffee-themed cocktail.

Coffee’s prevalence around the world means I can try all sorts of international expressions of this beverage when I travel. Among my most memorable experiences are:

• Espresso with my uncle-in-law in Italy
• Kona at a coffee plantation on the Big Island
• Café au lait at Café du Monde in New Orleans
• A cold Robusta with sweetened condensed milk in Vietnam

Robert Greene, in his book Mastery, talks about how you should tap into what made you weird as a kid to find your life purpose. Is there another Cherrypickers in my future?