When my barista went on holiday…

Summer time, the season of being carefree, letting your hair down, time to unwind and relax. Like many, summer is my favourite time of year, I like it almost as much as I like coffee. 

That was until I opened up my Skip App to order my coffee at my regular to find it ‘faded out’ and a little sign to say ‘closed’ written across it. Frantically I navigated to their Facebook page, maybe Skip had some sort of malfunction or maybe they just weren’t ‘Skipping’ that day for some reason. Surely even if I couldn’t pre-order I could still get my coffee fix the old-fashioned way of going in and ordering it?

But upon their Facebook page was a notice, they were really closed and although reading this devastated me, the second sentence was what nearly caused a breakdown. They were closed until mid-January. That was three weeks away. Three. Whole. Weeks.

Go somewhere else I hear you say, it’s just coffee, you can get in anywhere. And yes, technically that is true, but I can’t get this coffee anywhere.

Plus, it’s more than just the coffee, it’s the whole experience. I might only venture two steps into the café to collect my coffee each morning (in all honesty sometimes I don’t even get inside the door because my barista has seen me approaching and brought it to me), but it is an experience that brings joy to my day and sometimes the first bit of happiness I have experienced.

As a non-morning person my coffee is my lifeline. With my love and reliance on the caffeine beans comes a love for the whole EXPERIENCE itself.

My favourite barista always smiles and says, “hi Shona” when she sees me, she often compliments my outfits or asks me how I am, she knows me (or at least my name and coffee order), she is friendly, she (at least on the surface) cares how I am and then she hands me a coffee, like the metaphorical cherry on the top of an ice cream.

My barista relationship might not be meaningful or life changing but It is constant, dependable and one of my favourites. It is always warm and welcoming, I am given something I not only want but need, and I am set to take on the day with a smile on my face and caffeine running through my veins. I can whole heartedly say I walk out of the café a different person than I entered, and I owe it all to her and her coffee making skills.

So, you can imagine my absolute devastation when I read this closure notice. Although I wanted my barista to be well rested, to be happy and ready to take on the year ahead, I couldn’t help but wonder…what about me.

I won’t lie, the three weeks without my barista were tough, there was a spark missing from my day. I carried on with substitute coffee, at another café up the road. It did the caffeine job and powered up my motivation to take on the day, but it wasn’t the same. The barista was always different, they didn’t know my name, sometimes they even messed up my order and on occasion, despite Skipping I had to wait. It wasn’t dependable, it wasn’t constant, and it just made you, my number one baristas, even more amazing in my coffee-loving eyes.