“Hey now, chin up! Your fever seems to be gone!” Chisato said in her carefree way.
Takina was in so much shock that she remained frozen for a while. As a professional, she couldn’t forgive herself for losing her calm and letting Chisato distract her on the road. How could she, Takina, make such a stupid mistake? She sat on top of the van lying on its side, pulled her knees up to her chin, and tried to process her self-inflicted humiliation.
“Neither of us got hurt, so there’s no reason to feel bad! Isn’t it awesome how seat belts and airbags keep people safe?!”
It wasn’t true that they’d made it out of the crash without a scratch. Takina’s pride was deeply hurt.
Chisato went to pull out the Boston bags from the car. She hung them on her shoulders and climbed to sit next to Takina, anticipating a zombie attack. By taking position on top of the overturned van, they’d have a high vantage point to deal with the first wave easily. If the zombies somehow managed to approach them undetected, they’d make noise and shake the van trying to climb up to the girls, alerting them to their presence.
Chisato opened her bag and took out the portable stove, a bottle of water, and a small silver pot.
“Might as well take a break, huh?”
Takina was sensitive to the word “break” after breaking the car and her spirit.
“Are you making espresso?”
“Yeah. I know we were supposed to pack only essentials, but I’d be miserable with a pour-over coffee maker. Don’t look at me like that. I brought ground coffee, although I was tempted to bring a mill and whole beans!”
What Chisato did bring was a tall, silver moka pot for brewing coffee on the stove. All she needed to do was unscrew the top, fill the boiler chamber at the bottom with water, and fill the filter funnel in the middle with ground coffee, packing it tight. Then she would screw all the pieces back together and put the pot on the stove. As the water began to boil, the steam in the lower chamber created pressure, forcing the hot water upward, through the grounds in the filter part, and into the collection chamber. A moka pot used steam pressure, unlike a pour-over.
Mainstream cafés used large machines to prepare espresso by running hot water through the grounds at high pressure. This quick process resulted in a rich brew. Brewing coffee on a gas stove took more time, but that was how it was done at Café LycoReco.
Both of these methods resulted in great-tasting coffee, but Takina had a personal preference for stovetop coffee.
As the flames licked the bottom of the pot, the water came to a boil, and the pot began to rattle quietly from steam bubbling up or from the buildup of pressure. You could imagine what was going on inside. Soon the rich aroma of coffee began to spread through the air, steam hissing as the hot espresso collected in the top chamber. The scent of coffee suddenly grew intense, enveloping the girls with its calming magic. When the sound changed to a gurgle and the lid rattled, it was a sign that the coffee was ready.
Chisato picked up the pot, holding the handle through a handkerchief, and poured the espresso into two mugs. The amount was about half the volume of a small coffee can per person, but that was enough. Lastly, Chisato dropped a sugar cube into each mug.
Only then did it occur to Takina that the moka pot Chisato had brought was a two-cup one intended for two people. They had others at the café, ranging from one-cup to four-cup ones… Maybe Takina was right after all about what Chisato had been asking her earlier…
“Here, enjoy!”
No, that couldn’t be it… That was what Takina told herself firmly, taking the mug Chisato offered her.
The girls clinked their steaming mugs as if they were toasting to something, bringing them to their lips. The flavor was rich and bitter, but the sweetness of sugar softened it. The powerful aroma of the brew spread through the mouth, escaping through the nose with each breath.
Each mug had only so little coffee, but that was fine. It wasn’t the sort of coffee you’d down in big gulps. Like whiskey, it was meant to be enjoyed in tiny sips, savoring each one with all your senses.
“Oh, did you want milk?”
“No, I think it’s best like this.”
Other flavors would only obstruct the deliciousness of that coffee. At the moment, Takina wanted to focus fully on that clean taste, lapping it up a bit at a time. She let out a slow, deep exhale, feeling tension and bad thoughts leave her body.
“Hmm… Heh-heh, I can’t make it as good as Teach’s coffee somehow. I wonder what he does differently!” Chisato said with a slightly frustrated smile.
When making coffee on the stove, none of the steps were automated, so you could get quite different results depending on who was making it, Takina thought. Even if you tried to do it exactly the same as another person, you might use an ever-so-slightly different amount of grounds, packing them more or less tightly into the filter funnel, or you might use a stronger or weaker flame. Those micro-differences gave the espresso a unique personality.
Takina took another sip. Her lips stretched into a delicate smile.
“It may not be the same, but I like it. You make delicious coffee.”
Chisato looked at Takina blankly for a second, but then her face lit up with a big smile.
“You think so? Yay! All right, now I’ve got the energy to last me all night!”
“Yes, no chance of sleeping after drinking this.”
The belief that espressos, being so small and traditionally done with dark roast beans, contained less caffeine than a cup of pour-over coffee even though espressos were more flavorful was false. This myth spread through Japan because of an article on an online blog—perhaps it was written by mistake, or the claims were intentionally made up—which was then ripped off by lots of other outlets due to the attention-grabbing potential of that counterintuitive information. After being repeated by many media sources, it began to be taken for granted.
The truth was that an espresso made by a coffee machine contained about the same amount of caffeine as a large cup of coffee from a pour-over. Brewing coffee on a stove might increase the caffeine content, as members of the LycoReco crew would confirm, based on firsthand experience. As to why that was—more grounds per cup or longer brewing time—that was anybody’s guess.
It had been Itou the manga artist and Yoneoka the writer who had brought the higher caffeine content of LycoReco’s coffee to the crew’s attention. They both claimed stovetop coffee was more potent than any energy or vitamin drink, helping them meet tight deadlines.
Takina and Chisato habitually drank espresso with lots of sugar before nighttime missions. With the extra energy from sugar, they could be sure they wouldn’t be sleepy until morning.
That night, they were having coffee in the small hours before morning. They definitely weren’t going to sleep anytime soon, which was fine since it’d be some time before they reached a safe place.
“Have some of these, too, Takina!”