The end of February through at least the first couple of weeks of March is a null time. There are no holidays. The days themselves have started to get long enough that sunlight no longer feels like a precious commodity. Snow still might fall, or there might be days when it’s warm enough to go out without a coat, even without a jacket, but it’s all fleeting. What was, just a short time ago, a newborn year has now reached an awkward age when it’s not a child but not a teenager, neither winter nor spring. And at times it feels like it will last forever.
That’s what I thought on a morning that was gray and cloudy with brief periods of sun when I went to my favorite coffee shop, a tiny place, wedged between a thrift store and what was once a Chinese restaurant, once a realtor, once a law office, all of it in a building that’s more than a century old. So much has passed through it, most of it forgotten.
The mercury was just low enough that my windbreaker was enough to get me from the car to the counter but I still wanted something to warm me up. So I ordered one of their Eclipse coffees. It was a drink they’d started making for the August 2017 eclipse—a latte topped with foam and dusted with activated charcoal and a creamy flower design.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the barista said, “we don’t serve that anymore.”
I was okay with that. I understand menu items come and go, and it seemed especially fitting that a drink named for a transient event. Eclipses, any astronomer will tell you, happen all the time since all objects in space are in constant motion. They’re special because most of us are, from a terrestrial perspective, fixed to one spot, so we consider ourselves lucky, or unlucky depending on how you feel about the day suddenly turning dark or a full moon disappearing, to be under one.
Instead I ordered a large red eye, a regular coffee topped with a shot of espresso, just the thing to get me in motion.
That coffee sounds good, I love me some lattes.
That particular drink was really good. It was almost like a liquid Oreo. I was so sorry they discontinued it, but they still have a lot of really good stuff.
I hate it when restaurants change their menus and get rid of the only thing I like. At least you had an energizing alternative!
I hate it when restaurants get rid of the one thing on the menu that I liked! At least you had an energizing alternative!
The red eye definitely was energizing. I’m a caffeine junkie and it still managed to keep me going for the rest of the day. And I understand they can’t keep everything on the menu all the time. This particular coffee shop is so great I’m willing to forgive them for it too. I also really like that they have a rotating menu of pastries. There’s always something new to try.
This is just the thing to get me in motion, Chris, so thank you for that.
One of the reasons I value our friendship, Ann, is that you help keep me moving forward.