Coffee & a Biscuit
This morning we needed to head out into the world for an errand. It was the first time getting in the car for close to a week. We decided to take a detour along the lake to a local coffee shop that offers curbside pickup. This particular coffee shop has partnered with a local biscuit company during this strange time to offer breakfast biscuits as part of their menu.
We each ordered a biscuit, mine topped with honey and my husband’s with strawberry jam. My husband ordered a draft cereal milk latte and I ordered an amaretto espresso lemonade. We also ordered a bag of whole bean coffee to replenish our supply at home. A cheerful woman wearing gloves and a mask delivered our order to the car window when we drove up.
Today I ate food that we didn’t prepare ourselves for the first time since March 15th. Today was the first time I drank coffee that wasn’t black pour over coffee in my house since at least March 13th, maybe longer. It’s May 5th.
The joy I felt as the first sip of sweetened iced espresso hit my tastebuds was incredible, and a bit overwhelming. Thankful I wasn’t the one driving, I closed my eyes, savoring the moment. After my next sip, I looked over at my husband, smiled and said, “I’m so happy right now.”
I opened the foil wrapped around the jam biscuit, passing it to my husband in the driver’s seat. He took his first bite and smiled too. Next I unwrapped my breakfast, my nose filling with the wonderful scents of honey and buttery biscuit. I don’t know if there was ever a biscuit more delicious than the one I ate in the passenger seat of our car today.
Our detour was something that used to be ordinary, simple. Our detour was something that I would have been happy to have the chance to do two months ago. It was also an experience I wouldn’t have put much thought into at all. But today, it was special. Today I had the privilege of seeing the amazing in the ordinary.
It’s amazing that people are willing to put themselves as risk every day so that we can have the option of carryout food and coffee. It’s also amazing that we have the internet where we can minimize that risk to place an order and pay without needing to set foot in a small business. Let’s put the additional factors of current circumstances aside.
To purchase even a black cup of coffee from a coffee shop, someone in a far away part of the world had to grow and cultivate coffee beans. Someone had to harvest those beans and someone had to sell the beans to whoever provides them to the coffee shop. Once the beans are sold, someone has to roast them to perfection. The beans have to be stored and kept safe until they are ground by someone preparing the specific coffee that finds its way into your cup. I’m sure I am leaving a few hundred steps out along the way.
What about the cup you are drinking from? Then think about the work that went into constructing the building that contains your local coffee shop. What about the time spent creating a point of sale system that makes the transaction nearly effortless for you? Each component has their own complex system of layers. Layers that allow you to have a cup of coffee in your hand, in less than a minute.
That’s what I thought about while I savored my first carryout meal in nearly two months. A meal that I didn’t put any effort into creating. A meal that happened because hundreds of tiny events linked together in a chain. A chain that we have grown to see as perfectly ordinary.
When life speeds back up in the coming months, I hope I never forget how amazing it is to order and enjoy a simple cup of coffee.
