The Great Loves of Gilmore Girls: Coffee
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If you had to choose, would you pick coffee over Gilmore Girls?
For me Gilmore Girls is like chicken soup. It nourishes the soul and comforts and more. I’d give up chicken soup over Gilmore Girls - if I could still have chicken. I might even give up chicken if they’d Extra Crispy Kentucky Fry something else.
Lorelai Oh, I can’t stop drinking the coffee. I stop drinking coffee, I stop doing the standing and walking and the words putting-into-sentence doing. Luke I’ll make you some coffee. s04e20 Luke Can See Her Face
From the very first scene in the pilot episode, Lorelai’s coffee habit is as ever-present as her mother’s disappointment:
Lorelai Please, Luke. Please, please, please. Luke How many cups have you had this morning? Lorelai None. Luke Plus? Lorelai Five but yours is better. Luke You have a problem. Lorelai Yes I do. Luke [filling her mug] Junkie. Lorelai Angel. You’ve got wings, baby. s01e01 Pilot
And is that her own mug she’s brought to the coffee shop? Make of that what you will, but this woman loves coffee.
For heaven’s sake, she dreams about coffee alongside being in love and pregnant with twins (s03e01 Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days) and she’s passed her addiction onto her daughter. When Rory visits a psychologist after a boat-related misdemeanour, her emotional breakdown comes when thinking about her boyfriend – and that pesky bean.
Rory I… I don’t think I can take running into him every day in the halls and the paper and the coffee cart. Oh my God. I’m gonna have to quit drinking coffee – and I love coffee! [Sobbing and burying her face in a fistful of tissues] I really love coffee. s06e11 The Perfect Dress
Part of Gilmore folklore is that Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore) was not keen on coffee and drank cola instead.
The coffee-focussed folks at Sprudge wryly note that:
Lorelai takes Luke’s coffee black while she adds cream to her work coffee and her refrigerated, pre-ground home coffee: a sure sign they are destined to break up and get back together weekly for the rest of their lives.
I have a little stove-top Bialetti percolator and I savour the ritual of it, screwing the thing together, waiting for the gurgling, the aroma filling the kitchen. But I’d have Gilmore Girls over coffee and most food groups, any day of the week.
Naturally it wouldn’t be a coffee article without Lorelai’s immortal words:
Fran at Weston’s Here we go. Three coffees. Lorelai Oh, no, I’m sorry. I only ordered one. Fran You said “Coffee, coffee, coffee”. Lorelai Haha no see I said COFFEE-COFFEE-COFFEE. Fran Right. Lorelai As in I really need coffee-coffee-coffee. You know. Fran No. Lorelai Coffee-coffee-coffee is a saying, like an exaggeration. It’s a funny, desperate cry for caffeine. It’s just my thing. ‘Cos everybody knows I drink a lot of coffee, so the day can’t start until I’ve had my jolt. It’s a bit. My bit. It’s not a particularly funny bit unless you know me, then… You know what, three coffees would be great. What do I owe you? s05e15 Jews and Chinese Food
Sometimes there’s nothing better than a slice of cheesecake and a cup of joe.
Anyone out there love coffee as much as Lorelai?