To the best of my knowledge, I'm not addicted to anything.

Sure, there are lots of things I crave: bagels on a Saturday morning, Brewers baseball 162 days a year, a 3G iPhone ... but I'm not mentally or physically addicted to anything.

Except, maybe, coffee.

I mean, I don't drink it every single day, but whenever I can, I do. I don't freak out if I go a few days without it, but I'll always pour myself a cup if someone makes it -- and I'm the first to suggest to a coworker that we grab a quick cup before 9:30 or so if there isn't any brewing on site.

The other day, as I saw a full pot sitting in our office kitchenette, I noticed my mouth watering. Literally, watering. And that's when I thought I might be addicted.

On the other hand, maybe I'm just blissfully living in denial.

Again, I can function just fine without coffee, though I function much better with it. I'm not addicted to any other caffeinated beverage, that much I know. I could take or leave soda or tea.

But as for coffee, I'm a late bloomer, and I'm a java snob.

I thought the stuff tasted like poison until I turned 19. I remember that summer very well. My friends and I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the Coffee Trader on Downer, and I was always the guy drinking tea. Then, in a meeting at my internship at Johnson Controls, someone came around offering coffee. I sheepishly asked for tea, and the whole room shot me a stunned look.

I vowed, then and there, to learn to like coffee.

I went back to my cubicle and poured myself a 16-oz. cup, black. I forced it down, and I remember it tasted like liquid death. But when I finished the cup, I drank another.

That night, I went back to the Coffee Trader and had about eight more cups. Never before did I know the magic of caffeine. I never looked back.

Fortunately, I learned to enjoy coffee by drinking the good stuff, so gas station coffee, Folgers, McDonald's coffee -- they do nothing for me at all. But "diner quality" and higher -- I love it. Alterra, Stone Creek, Whole Foods, Starbucks -- the stronger the better.

Now, my so-called addiction is well under control. I've learned not to drink coffee much past lunch, as I don't need any other excuses for a fitful night's sleep. And I'll never drink 10 cups a day like I did in college.

So am I addicted? I don't know. And I don't care. I prefer to think of myself like those gymnasts in those ‘80s commercials, the "coffee achievers." If I am a coffee addict, and that's my biggest vice, then don't expect me at the next meeting of Coffeeholics Anonymous. This is one addiction for which I don't want a cure.