Caffeine Addicts Anonymous. That’s the group my roommates joke I should join. Back in the states I have a large cup coffee every day, sometimes two cups if it’s been a long day (or even if I just feel like it). Since starting to drink coffee in my first year of college, I’ve more or less reached the point where the Starbucks on Loyola’s campus knows who I am and what I want to drink the second I show up. That being said when I landed in Australia and found that chain coffee stores, like Starbucks, are few and far between I panicked a little but after finding a store called Coffee Wise in the campus center I began to relax.
There was coffee on this campus after all! It was just a little coffee bar with a pick up window and a handful of sandwiches and brightly colored pastries on display but still they had coffee. It even said so on the sign. This place was definitely going to become part of my daily routine, I thought as I passed by without stopping.
One of the other Loyola girls on my trip, Bianca, drinks even more coffee than I do so we were thrilled we wouldn’t have to leave campus to get a decent cup of coffee. Then one of the days during orientation someone was standing in front of Coffee Wise offering red and black free coffee vouchers to the international students walking by. Bianca and I couldn’t believe our luck. Desperate to get our coffee fix, we both lied and said we had a friend who’d just left for the bathroom so we could get two. Two free coffees, it was any coffee addict’s dream.
I stuffed the two vouchers into my wallet and as the days passed I forgot about them. I thought I was adjusting fairly well to not drinking coffee and with temperatures in the nineties almost every day it was just too hot to drink it anyway. Then one day after class this week, I wandered into the campus center in an attempt to figure out how to get back to the residence halls and immediately saw that Coffee Wise was open. It was 2:00 in the afternoon but I didn’t care. Armed with my free coffee card from orientation, I made my way to the counter.
“Hi, one coffee with milk and sugar please.” My standard order when I wasn't getting iced coffee.
“So you want a latte?” the girl behind the counter asked already pushing the appropriate buttons on the cash register.
“No.” I shook my head. Why did milk immediately mean latte? After a week without it, plain coffee was all I wanted, but I didn’t know how to explain myself. Long black? Flat white? No, that wasn’t right either. I racked my brain trying to think of what they called it here.
“You just want a black coffee with cold milk and sugar?” the girl asked seeming confused about why I’d want to drink it that way. Was putting milk in coffee not a thing here?
“Yes, please.” Wasn’t that what I’d said originally? I handed the girl my voucher and waited patiently while she made my coffee before hurrying off to the dorms clutching my prize in my hands. When I stepped out of the air conditioning and into the blazing heat, sipping my coffee, I didn't even care how hot it was outside. It was exactly what I’d been craving and in that moment it was the best cup of coffee I'd ever had.
Not knowing how to order my coffee was a little bit of a culture shock for someone who drinks coffee every day, but now that I know how (and my friend gave me his voucher) it’ll be back to my usual coffee routine. I can deal with the weird looks when I voice my order (the local Aussies drink their coffee black) but I’ll have to remember to specify cold milk from now on otherwise I’ll end up with a latte.
No comments:
Post a Comment