Once Upon a University Campus

Coffee is not just coffee

Annika had initially planned to finish her critique on Monday, but now that she was at it, she decided to finish it. That way she will have an entire day to get it reviewed by Prof Phatak. She got into it and forgot the rest of world.

Mr Outside placed a piece of tissue and a cup of coffee on her desk. Annika who was deep into her analysis, took a moment to get what just happened. She looked up, Mr Outsider was holding a cup in his hand, presumably his coffee.

"Coffee? For me ?" Annika needlessly questioned. Mr Outsider just nodded.

One sip and it was different, it had a curiously familiar taste but not that of a coffee.

"It is Mocha, it is coffee with some chocolate" he said as if he just read the question in mind.

"Ah! I see. Indeed it is chocolate. That is the familiar taste. Do you like this mocha?"

"No, not really. I like only Americano or Espresso, which is plain coffee Americano being diluted Espresso. Why? Don't you like mocha?"

"It is good. But the one I had this afternoon was better"

"That was a vanilla cappuccino, it is rich and creamy. Lot of people like it." He answered it as a matter of fact.

"Vanilla? Ah. so many kinds of coffee. I only knew three kinds of coffees. South Indian coffee -the ones they serve in South Indian restaurants in Munirka, dhaba coffee from our campus and Punjabi coffee."

"Punjabi coffee , never heard of it before. Have they started growing coffee in Punjab, I thought that was impossible."

"I don't think they grow coffee in Punjab either. It is just that my Punjabi mother had this coffee recipe for real cold winter days -one cup of super hot milk, 2-3 teaspoons of sugar and one teaspoon of Nescafe. Stir well and drink, supposed to keep you warm the whole day" Annika chuckled.

"Punjabi coffee!!" Mr Outside too laughed, so hard that he had closed his eye.

"And I forgot about cold coffee" Annika with the excitement of a kindergartner.

"Frappe you mean?" Mr Outsider sipping his Americano.

"Frappe? What is that? Cold coffee is one which you get but it is too hot to start drinking it immediately. So you leave it on the table for it to cool down slightly but you forget about it altogether. An hour or so later, bingo we have cold coffee" Annika said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Mr Outsider cracked up again, this time there were tears in his eyes. A happy Mr Outsider, with coffee in one hand, his other hand lightly placed on his waist made a beautiful sight.

Annika continued after a few minutes, "Coffee is not just coffee, it is Vanilla cappuccino, Mocha, Espresso, Americano, and what did you just say - frappe and there are more the names I would not know and how can I forget the Chai that kicks -Chai latte. That is indeed a world of affluence. In a subsistence world there will only be coffee and chai, served with extra sugar for special guest, less sugar for family members, no sugar at all if you are mad at someone. Folks need to stretch what they have.... But in an affluent world things are different. There will be a great many product assortment.... I was reading an article on product differentiation the other day. In a regular supermarket in affluent America, a single brand of ice cream maker sold 9 different types of vanilla ice cream, can you believe it just Vanilla, not like different flavors of ice cream, not strawberry, chocolate, pista as I mistook initially. It is just the types of vanilla ice cream sold by a single brand. And what are the types ? low fat, no fat, french vanilla, dairy free, all natural, premium and a few others that did not make sense to me..."