I recently purchased a new coffee maker. I know, I know: I already mentioned this. I have been using it for over a month now and I have to say that I give it – on a scale of 10, about 7.5. I don’t know why I don’t give it a 10, except that it’s maybe too tall.

The coffee is great. It comes out into a nice stainless double walled carafe that looks fantastic wherever you put it. I can’t wait for the warmer weather to get here on July 4th so I can take the carafe down to the back porch and have a leisurely breakfast in the morning sun with all the coffee I can drink. Which brings me to the point:

How much coffee can one drink?

My former pots were all 4 to 5 cup devices and that always seemed to be about right. Now and then, I would pour a little additional water into the reservoir to squeeze out another cup. So when looking for a new pot I figured that a larger pot that would permit small batches would be just the thing. Flexibility, after all, is a good thing. Not my favorite thing, but, well, that’s another story.

I have been keeping an unofficial count of the number of re-fills I get out of each batch in my new coffee maker, and It seems that the Field of Dreams principle (If you build it they will cone) holds for coffee makers as well. If you make it you will drink it.

I began making a four cup batch and found I needed just one more cup before I was done. Then on one particular morning I seemed to be on a coffee roll and actually made a second pot of 4 cups. Well, being the intuitive person I am, I figured that I might as well make, say, 6 cups and probably toss some coffee down the drain but be sure of having enough for whatever octane emergency might arise.

Guess what? I drink it all. Slowly but inexorably, the amount of coffee I made approached a full 10 cup pot. Hence the principle holds: The amount of coffee one drinks is positively related to the size of one’s pot. I am sure that if Kevin Costner has built a 5000 seat stadium on the edge of his corn field it would have filled up. In the interest of science, I have considered renting one of those church basement 30 cup coffee makers and seeing how I make out with that. Of course, I’d have 911 on my speed dial, just in case.

Well, I see the sun has finally come out. This is a good thing for those of us who suffer from seasonally affected disorders. One more cup of darkroast should just about get me into the day in high gear. Hmm, as I lift the carafe there seems to be more than one cup remaining. Maybe I’ll just write a couple of emails while it lasts.