I’m sitting at a window table, staring at my keyboard, waiting for inspiration, anxious to get a new blog post up before the afternoon rush.
“It was a dark and stormy night…”
This is the best I can come up with?
My train of thought is disturbed by the cacophony around me. The girl behind me at table three, on her cell phone, is gossiping about, I gather, Dave Letterman. I hear the words “blackmail”, “48 hours producer” and “before he was married”.
To my left, a guy in a suit, standing by the Synesso machine, not taking his eyes off his Blackberry, tells another guy in a suit, with two Blackberries, that last week he was in Geneva, Lisbon and Dubai.
From two Café staffers on break, I hear “secret agent”, “I’m pretty sure she was drunk”, and “seriously, just text him”.
From the store sound system, I hear “Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”.
At the counter, a well dressed, middle aged woman asks Ben, “What’s the difference between hot chocolate and drinking chocolate”?
Ben replies with the standard answer, “drinking chocolate is very thick, very rich, an extreme version of hot chocolate, if you will”.
“What’s the difference between Peppermink and Cinnamink?” she asks.
“They’re both something we do to a drink if you want. Peppermink is the addition of organic peppermint oil, and Cinnamink is a spicy combination of peppers and cinnamon”.
“How big is your small latte?”
There’s no end to the questions, but Ben is a patient fellow, even as the line behind her starts to grow.
“We have two sizes, 12 ounce and 16 ounce”, he replies, pointing to the sample cups over his right shoulder, in direct line of sight to the curious customer, who is now obviously making a day long excursion of shopping for a coffee.
“Do you sell tea”, she asks. Ben says yes.
“Do you have milkshakes?”
“We make a frozen blended drink that is comparable, but without the ice cream”.
“OK, I’ll have an espresso”. And with that, a wave of relief washes over Ben, having gotten the order, but is quickly replaced with fear as the transaction still needs to be ratified with payment.
She sets a giant purse on the counter, and extracts two rolls of nickels. She wants her $1.40 back in dimes.
I turn back to my laptop, feeling the onset of a retail induced headache coming on, and log off.
“A dark and stormy night, indeed”.
The next post will have to wait until the weather changes.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: www.minkchocolates.com
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In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
