I'm a sucker for latte art. This is a set from a competition, posted to Flickr by CairnsDining.

This morning as I clutched my steaming cup of java on the first sub-freezing morning of the season, I pondered how I went from being a non-coffee-drinker to considering getting a hotel-style one-cup coffee maker to put on my bedside table. I travel pretty regularly, and one of the things I love about hotel stays (other than a solid night’s sleep with no danger of a snoring husband or dark-fearing child) is waking up with a cup of coffee just feet from the bed.

Every coffee drinker has a story of how she came to be one. After all, very few of us spent our pre-K years with Folgers in our sippy cups. My parents weren’t coffee drinkers, so it wasn’t a habit I saw firsthand very often, although my grandparents did percolate a pot on the stovetop each morning. And they drank it hot and black, which is how I take my coffee now.

When I was in college, some brilliant mind who saw the opportunity to hook young adenosine receptors and dopamine production centers put a Starbucks in the cafeteria, which accepted the “free” bonus dollars that came with a school meal plan. Let me simplify that into 18-year-old college student language: Free Starbucks before 8 a.m. classes. Still, I thought of my beloved mochas more as a breakfast option (ha!) or a snack/treat, not as a daily morning ritual.

In adulthood, I was more of a tea drinker. Earl Grey, hot, as Captain Picard would say. But even my favorite 24th century starship commander, known for his tea, has coffee and a croissant for breakfast each day (see “The Perfect Mate”). An eight-ounce cuppa joe has as much as 240 milligrams of caffeine, compared to the same cup of tea’s paltry 130 milligrams or so. That extra 110-milligram jolt could mean the difference between saving the day for the Federation and being conquered by the Borg.

It’s an intergalactic dependence indeed. Whether you drink coffeine, kaf, synthi-caff, or raktajino, coffee is the universal language for, “I could use a nap, but this drink will do.”

I remember before I had children, a friend who did have a young daughter said he didn’t start drinking coffee until after she was born. I thought that was a bit silly–picking up this addictive habit fairly late into adulthood. It seemed a lot less silly when I had a kid of my own. Caffeine never affected me much before I became a mommy, but after I gave up caffeine for the pregnancy and breastfeeding years, I noticed a huge difference when I started drinking it again. And then I found myself turning that “bug” into a “feature.” A quick cuppa actually wakes me up, which comes in handy when you’ve only slept three hours at a time for months or years on end. Now I know why my friend didn’t start drinking until after his kid was born. I found that my tea habit started transitioning to a coffee habit for the starship-captain-worthy caffeine boost. But now if I drink one too many cups, I have to walk a lap around the office before I can get any work done!

As Sookie Stackhouse says of her tanning habit, “It’s my vice. Everybody gets one.” Looks like I’m taking coffee as my vice. I could do worse.

Ruth’s interests all involve making things, which means her husband and two kids have learned to watch out for stray pins and bead trays and to ask before eating anything made of fondant. By day, she's an editor over at opensource.com. Follow her on Twitter.