Jennifer Garner Jokes 'If I Could Marry Coffee I Would' — Here's How She Likes It (Exclusive)

Jennifer Garner's "oldest, best relationship" is with coffee.

"If I could marry coffee I would," the actress jokes to PEOPLE. "I love coffee."

As part of her longterm partnership with KitchenAid ("It's the most natural thing in the world," she says), Garner is unveiling the new KitchenAid Espresso Collection. The semi and fully-automatic machines, which range in price from $700 to $2,000, launched on KitchenAid.com on April 8.

Garner has incorporated the machines into her ever-changing coffee routine. "Almost always, I'll have an almond milk cappuccino, but sometimes I go flat white and sometimes I go cortado," she says of her favorite orders.

But she's not a one-cup-a-day kind of gal. "I always do a super early workout and I need a coffee before that to get me started — and that's usually an Americano," she says. "After I work out, I feel like I deserve a reward, so then I'll have my cappuccino. And then I probably have one more coffee in me mid-morning, and then I'm done for the day. If I have one later, it's decaf."

Garner hesitates to admit that she is "not an iced coffee person," she says, "but there are two people in my house who are."

The fully-automatic KitchenAid machines allow for different profiles with settings for temperature, milk type, strength and more. Garner's oldest daughter Violet, 18, is currently taking up three of her six profiles. (Garner is also mom to Seraphina Rose, 15, and Samuel, 12.)

"She's so specific because she's cool. If you're 18, you're super cool," Garner teases. "So yeah, she is always like, 'I like extra water in this. I like this extra hot.' She's very fancy."

Garner was a bit older than Violet when she had her first cup. "I was probably 23. I was living in New York City and I'd never been a coffee drinker," she says. "I got cast in Law & Order as a guest star, which is a rite of passage for young actors in New York City."

Garner was playing a love interest for actor Benjamin Bratt, and he took her out for coffee to discuss their characters. "We ordered lattes, and I'd never had a latte," she says. "And it was this big bowl. I added so much sugar to it because I was embarrassed to say, 'I don't know how to drink coffee. I don't know if I even like it.'"

Spoiler alert: She liked it. "I had so many of them and so much that I had to go home and lie down. I had to cancel an audition because I just overdosed my first time," she laughs. "I will never forget that day."

Garner can handle her fair share now. She'll even pull a few shots to incorporate into recipes for her social media series, Pretend Cooking Show. The Ina Garten recipe Beatty's Chocolate Cake is a favorite that comes to mind. (Espresso is known to intensify chocolate flavor.)

"I like to have coffee while I bake and I like to have coffee in what I'm baking," says Garner.