Since the start of the pandemic, my life’s changed a lot. In the beginning, I was scared as hell not knowing what would happen. Every day there was terrible new news coming out from across the world. Hospitals were overrun, reports of all kinds of craziness, and then it hit the US and everything went a little bit crazy.

Social distancing, masks, and then lockdowns and closures. The final straw for me was when my love coffee shop had to shut its doors and then also went out of business a few months later. I had always loved walking my little dog, Bingo down there every morning and sitting there watching the waves and having my morning cup. Such a distant memory!

It was right then that I realized, I didn’t even have a coffee machine at home. I’d always been a cafe girl and I loved the routine but with all the madness, what was I to do?... I jumped on Google and started to search…

The first thing I searched for was a coffee machine but not much was in stock. It seems as though I was one of the last ones to the party. Everybody else apparently had the same idea and needed to get their own home machine. Every time I tried to order one I would get an error message telling me it was out of stock or site unavailable. So very annoying!

After an hour or two of trawling through listings on eBay, my husband came home and said to me “hey, there's a yard sale down the road and they have all kinds of stuff available. We should go down and take a look as it’s the Johnsons who have that huge mansion down the road.”

So I turned around and said “Ok, I need some fresh air and I’m pretty cranky as I haven’t even been able to have a coffee as yet. Let’s go get some air!” he looked at me like I was a wild animal and said “oh god, let’s get you outside. You look like you’ve got some frustration to get out!”

We got down to the neighbor's house and it was like a feeding frenzy. People had come from all over town to grab the stuff they were selling. Paintings, fridges, chess boards and so much more.

I walked through the garage and I spotted a beautiful big Italian coffee machine out of the corner of my eye. Shiny knobs, huge bit chrome body and it looked like the one my local cafe had used. The kind of coffee machine you put on your bench proudly and display with pride.

I asked the owner what they wanted for it and he said “hmmm that cost me $1500 when we got it only a few months ago, but you can have it for $500”

I looked at my husband with big puppy dog eyes and said “Can I pllllleeaaase get that. I would love that so much” and he rolled his eyes and said “Of course honey if you really want it, let’s get it”

But just then as I was about to jump up and give my husband a big hug… SHE came along. She, in this case, was my worst enemy. The woman who had always teased and been mean to me during high school and the woman whose kids terrorized my kids at school too.

When we would see each other in public, the nicest it would get is a smile through gritted teeth and we would both keep going on our merry way. But today was different!

She saw me and my husband looking at the coffee machine and walked right up. She said to the man running the yard sale “Oh my god. This GOOORRRGEOUS” in a loud and over-the-top voice. Then added “I simply must have it”

She said to the man “How much is it. I’ll double whatever she offered you!”

I was shocked… the man looked at me and said "Well, we haven’t sold it yet. Would you like to make a counteroffer?"

I looked at my husband with absolute rage and he said to me “Calm down. We don’t need it that badly” Then he added “Be the better person… let it go!”

I summoned all the energy I could and then told the man “don’t worry, she can have it” and started to walk away. I was proud of myself for being a better person.

Just as we started to walk away, something else caught my eye. A little compact coffee machine with a Keurig logo on it. It didn’t look like much. Certainly no bells and whistles like the other one… but it was a damn sight better than having no coffee.

I walked back over to the man who was in the middle of selling the other machine to my arch enemy and said to him “How much for this one?” and he replied “Oh, that old thing. You can just have that one. I don’t even like the coffee that one makes!”

Obviously, this was not a good start to my new coffee machine - but given everybody was watching. I said thank you and accepted his generous offer - even though I was embarrassed to be taking this inferior thing in front of my arch enemy - I kept it together.

Just before I was about to take it home the man said to me “hey, I’ve actually got some of these coffee pods my wife ordered for that machine which we never got a chance to try. She ordered them because she hated the ones which came with the Keurig.”

I said “Oh, really? What kind are they?” and he said to me “I’m not sure. Some online company called Angelinos I think. Here you go, give them a try!”

I grabbed the box of coffee and my new machine and started walking home when my husband said to me “There’s no better price than free. I just hope this coffee is better than that regular Keurig stuff. I’ve tried that before and it was horrible.”

I turned and gave him a death stare and said “Would you please just keep an open mind and try it!” and he nodded back and said “Ok, sorry. I know that woman annoys the hell out of you!”

When we got home the first thing we did is plug our new machine in and try out the new coffee - well, new to us at least. We were worried about how fresh it would taste to be honest.

The machine buzzed and hummed when we turned it on and we cracked open the box of coffee. It took us a minute or two to figure out how to get the K-Cups into the machine, but after the mucking around we were ready to try our first cup.I pressed the button and closed my eyes.

The first thing I noticed was this beautiful smell coming from the machine. It smelt like chocolate cake or something so sweet and I said to my husband “What the hell is that smell? That’s not the coffee machine is it? It couldn't be!” he shrugged his shoulders and said “What else would it be?... I didn’t secretly start baking a cake without you knowing! Haha”

I walked up quickly and grabbed the cup and took my first sip and felt like I was sitting in a cafe in Florence somewhere. The coffee was so fresh and had so much flavor. I was in a bit of a daze to be honest. Angelino's Coffee had just blown my mind.

My husband looked at me and said “I haven’t seen that look in a while! What’s it taste like?” to which I replied “Shhhh let me take a moment” and he laughed out loud in response.

After I had my time savoring the rich, fresh flavors, I handed him the cup and said “You tell me what you think” he took a big sip, paused, and then said “Oh, this is amazing. What the hell was this coffee called again?”

I looked at the box and then looked at him with the biggest grin on my face and said “The company is called Angelinos, but I think we can safely say, this cup of coffee should be named revenge” and smirked at him.

He looked back over at me and said “HA! Serves her right for trying to one-up you. I bet that bag of coffee she has at home is stale and disgusting and the free little machine we got produces this amazing coffee.” and I said “You’re damn right. Never judge a book by it’s cover!”

Needless to say… the next time I saw her in the street I just walked tall and proudly past her and smiled because I now have my Angelino’s coffee.