With the First Sip of Coffee
It becomes clear if your café experience on that particular occasion is going to be a memorable one or not
It’s a sunny day with clear skies, a perfect weekend weather, so to speak. The plan was to have brunch, take a long stroll along the harbor, and finally enjoy a cup of coffee in the evening before heading back home.
The only problem being the fact that possibly everyone in the town had similar plans. Still, we managed to find a restaurant for a quick bite. The harbor was expectedly busy, but it’s been two years now and almost everyone has, to a certain extent, perfected the art of social distancing in public places. So our stroll on the waterfront also happened as planned.
It was now time to enjoy a cup of the bean drink. The café that we usually frequent on weekends was packed. We noticed it from a distance and didn’t bother to enter. The trajectory was similar in the next four or five places, every café was full. It was a matter of time before we had been forced to go past all the better options available.
Having scanned through a plethora of alternatives, we came across this quiet place in the corner. At least it seemed quiet. It was multi-storied and gave us hope. We placed our order and, having found no place to sit on the ground floor; we climbed up to the first floor. It was full as well. The café had deceived us on many counts, like ambience, location, occupancy…
Since the payment had been made, cancellation was no longer an option. We rushed to the counter to change the order into a to-go option. The barista was quick to make the adjustment. We came out in a hurry, took off the mask, and took the first sip. That’s that.
Why do people head to a café? It is not that they cannot make coffee at home. It is not that they cannot meet friends and relatives in any other place. It is not owing to a lack of options.
It is simply because it is assumed that they make better coffee at a café vis-à-vis at any other place, and while enjoying a freshly brewed bean drink, one can do some other work or conduct some personal or professional meetings. People don’t mind parting with some of their hard-earned dollars to enjoy coffee in a café because of this expectation.
What if the coffee served to you is terrible? Forget meeting expectations. What if it undermines it?
For starters, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth for quite some time. Consequently, the mood suffers. Then comes the realization that one has actually paid to be served this atrocity, one that ensures a juxtaposition of anger and frustration.
Briefly put, it is total loss. And all it takes is only one sip.
It’s that first sip. The world came crashing down. The coffee was cold. It was tasteless. And it had sugar. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. It was yet another instance of the universe conspiring against us to spoil what had till had point been a memorable day. Few things can be compared to paying for a beverage only to find the taste well below expectations.
In the hindsight, the café was understaffed. The staff was overworked since it was a busy weekend. Having said that, even if one takes into account all the humanitarian considerations, nothing can explain the disappointment of that evening. If a cup of coffee is bland, then there is something seriously wrong. Isn’t it?
That first sip of coffee left a terrible after taste. It took some time to recover. However, it was not the first time it had happened. Nor is it going to be the last.
