When I think of my love for coffee I think back to my early youth, when my late grandmother would make her famous Café Au Lait. This typically included a perfectly decorated Demi (Demitasse) tea cup filled with a lot of cream, sugar and just a splash of coffee.

Traditional Demitasse Cup

Hence the phrase, “Would you like some coffee with your sugar?”

It always amazes people when I tell them that my grandmother would give me coffee when I was as young as 4 years old. But this is pretty common in New Orleans’ black and Creole culture.