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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.
Е̇nu m̃ å . id
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.
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“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.”
Еn̊ u̇m̄а
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?”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“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.”
Е̂ n ũmа
“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.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“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.”
Ê n̈ u mа̂
If he was going to insist, then she could only look at him with gratitude. “Thank you. I can’t wait.”
💎💎💎
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
IT was a clear afternoon three days after her outing with Elliot. Olivia was busy in her workroom at Gordon’s Magic Appliances when a knock came on the door.
She looked and saw Rose’s light-brown hair swaying, a smile on her lips. “Olivia, you have a delivery.”
Rose handed over a heavy package, large enough that Olivia had to use both arms to take it. It was neatly wrapped in sturdy white paper with “Elliot Dicks” noted as the sender.
Is this the coffee set he was talking about the other day?
Е n̊ ù mă. ĭ d
Rose helped her carefully unwrap the package and open the box. Inside was an appliance she’d never seen before, a wooden box the size of two dictionaries stacked together, and an envelope.
Rose peered into the box with curiosity. “What is it?”
“I think it’s a coffee brewing appliance. It’s nearly time for a tea break. Do you want to try some coffee with me?”
“Can I?”
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“Of course. This sort of thing is more fun with two people anyway.”
“Oh, thank you. I’ll go get some treats then.”
W̌ е̊ b ńó v̆е̂l̆ Еnŭm̈а̇
Rose came back with a cute packet of cookies, and the two read the user manual in the envelope before trying to brew some coffee.
Rose boiled some water in a kettle and prepared the cups. As she did, Olivia measured the coffee beans and put them in a small box with a handle. She turned the handle, emitting a grinding sound and transforming the beans into a powder. Olivia tipped the coffee powder into a cone-shaped glass lined with paper—that was the “dripper,” apparently—which she then placed on top of the glass pot. Rose then slowly poured the hot water over it.
“It says to start with a small amount of water to wet it. Like this, I wonder?” ventured Rose.
“I think that looks good.”
After that, they divided the dark, steaming, aromatic liquid between two cups. The pair sat across from each other at the table and brought the cups to their lips with excitement.
Rose looked surprised. “It’s so refreshing and nice. It’s quite different from the coffee I’ve had before.”
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“I guess the paper absorbs the oil and odd flavors,” Olivia replied, passing on the knowledge she’d gained from Elliot, her cheeks full of cookies. Then, she glanced at the large wooden box that came along with the coffee dripper. “I guess putting that into your coffee makes it nicer. Should we try it?”
“What is it exactly?”
They opened the box and found six bottles a little smaller than their fists, each with a powder ranging in color from white to brown.
“The manual says these three are sugar, and these three are powdered milk,” read Olivia.
“I’ve never seen powdered milk before.”
“The brown one is from cows in the south, the ivory is from cows in the north, and the white one is buffalo milk. The sugar is also different colors based on where it was produced.”
Ӗňum̆ а̌
“Seems pretty incredible.”
“What do you want to try? I guess you can have just one, or it can be nice to combine milk with sugar.”
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“Hmm… I think I’ll try the milk from the southern cows.”
“I’m going to try this brown sugar.”
They dissolved some in their coffee and excitedly took another sip as they looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Oh my,” Rose expressed. “That’s so nice. It made it very smooth.”
Е̂ n u m̂а̂ .i ḋ
“Mine tastes like chocolate now. It’s wonderful.”
They then paired their drinks with cookies, swapped cups, and thoroughly enjoyed their coffee.
“That was wonderful,” Rose said. “Thank you for sharing.”
“And thank you for the cookies. Feel free to come again.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
And with that, they ended their teatime feeling fully content.
💎💎💎
En̈.ü m̀а_
THAT night, Olivia was in her warm room, warmed by a magic heater and lit by a magic lamp. She was in a warm nightgown, grinding coffee beans and thinking she’d put herself in a good mood before bed with an aromatic cup of coffee.
She poured the hot water through the paper-lined dripper to brew her coffee, which she then poured into a cup. Olivia brought it to her lips and sighed with contentment.
“It’s so good. It’s even nice on the stronger side.”
She then took one of the small glass bottles of powdered milk from the box up on a shelf.
“I’m curious about this one. I wonder what it tastes like.”
Using a spoon, she scooped it out and stirred it into her coffee, its rich scent filling the room.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
A sip put a look of rapture on her face.
“Mm. It’s like a refreshing, mature flavor.”
After that, she tried all sorts of combinations of milk and sugar, trying one after another. The coffee in the pot ran out during her experimentation, so she boiled a fresh pot of water to brew more.
It was late into the night, and the street beneath her window had grown quiet when she finished drinking her coffee with plenty of milk and sugar and let out a sigh of contentment.
“Oh, that was good.”
She stretched and stood, thinking it was about time to be getting to bed, then placed the box back up on the shelf. That’s when the envelope fell from the shelf. Out of it slid a card she hadn’t seen earlier.
Е n̆ü m̈ ă. і̇ d
“What’s this?”
She flipped it over and saw Elliot’s neat handwriting. It stated, “I hope you enjoy it. But do be careful about drinking too much late at night as you may not be able to sleep.”
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She froze in place, the card in her hand.
“How much is ‘too much’…?”
She poked her belly uneasily and heard it slosh about. That was clearly too much.
But she shook her head vigorously and voiced aloud, “It’ll be fine. Just a drink won’t keep me from sleeping. There’s no way.”
Е̊ n ǔm̂а
After cleaning up, she climbed into bed.
However…
“I can’t sleep.”
Typically, she would have drifted to sleep within five minutes, but there were absolutely no signs of sleep taking place that day after half an hour had passed.
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She’d heard counting sheep was good for when you couldn’t sleep. Perhaps she’d try that.
“Eight hundred and twenty-five…”
W ě bnоv̂еl̇ Е ṅu ṁà
Sleep was still nowhere to be seen by the time she’d counted to 1,000, and morning came when she finally started to doze a little.
“I guess that goes to show everything is best in moderation…”
Her shoulders slumped. She was feeling the exact opposite of the joy she had felt last night.
After spending that day utterly exhausted, she swore two things to herself. “No drinking coffee at night” and “All things in moderation.”
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