Side Story: Olivia Learns Her Coffee-Drinking Lesson
IT was a winter day with a cold wind blowing, just under a year after Olivia had moved to the capital.
Olivia and Elliot were walking along the road, huddling in their coats beneath the heavily cloud-laden sky alongside the bare trees.
“The wind is so cold again today. When will spring get here?” complained Olivia.
“If it’s anything like past years, it should start warming up at the beginning of next month,” Elliot replied.
They entered a café facing out to the street that had a somewhat old-fashioned motif. Relieved at the warmth inside, Olivia pulled off her coat, and the server sat them at a table by the wall, where she and Elliot sat facing each other.
Elliot picked up the tasteful but old-looking menu set on the table and opened it. The café was famous for its cakes topped with fruit and whipped cream, and the menu had a list bursting with different fruit offerings.
“They have several different flavors,” observed Elliot.
“They do. I don’t know if I can decide.”
Elliot watched her with amusement as she chose carefully, her eyes shining.
In the end, she ordered, “One slice of strawberry, one orange, one kiwi, and a pot of hot black tea, please.”
“I’ll have a slice of lemon and a pot of hot coffee. Thank you.”
As usual, the server looked concerned over Olivia’s order. “The pieces of cake are quite large. Are you sure you’d like three?”
Once she’d confirmed her order, Olivia looked at the young man sitting across from her. He looked like he might nearly laugh.
“You always have coffee. You must like it,” she commented.
“I like the smell. And you always have black tea. Do you not like coffee?”
“It’s not my favorite.” The conversation made her remember when she was young, and her mother would heat the dark liquid in a pot for her father. It was bitter, with odd undertones and a film of oil on top, yet somehow grainy too. She never did like it.
Elliot nodded in understanding as she recounted her experience. “Perhaps you might like the coffee from this café then.”
“Is it different somehow?”
“It’s a different brewing method. Would you like to try a sip?”
Well, if he insisted. Olivia requested another cup from the woman who had brought their tea and coffee over and poured a little bit of Elliot’s coffee before hesitantly bringing it to her lips.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s…like a completely different drink from the coffee I know.” She looked at the dark liquid in her cup, a little surprised. “It doesn’t have the odd undertones, and it’s not as bitter as I thought it would be. It’s quite good.”
According to Elliot, this café used a brewing method that had become popular recently. Before then, the most common method was the same as what Olivia’s family did: boiling roughly crushed beans in a pot, then drinking the liquid at the top of the mixture. This café, however, ground the beans to nearly a powder and filtered the water through it using a paper filter.
“The paper absorbs those odd flavors and the oil, clarifying the flavor,” explained Elliot.
It was a very clean flavor. She took another sip, and it went down easily since it didn’t have the oily and grainy feel from her childhood.
“This is a nice sort of bitter,” she observed. “It makes me want to drink some in the morning while I have a cinnamon roll.”
Elliot smiled. “Well, then let me give you a gift.”
“What?”
“I have an appliance that allows me to enjoy coffee even at home. I’ve wanted to give you something in return for the tea you gave me. This will do nicely.”
If he was going to insist, then she could only look at him with gratitude. “Thank you. I can’t wait.”