The beautiful dark twilight covers the city of Minnesota as the cold breeze hit all over the place. No one is around since it's the sleep time for everyone but not for me. My eyes are wide awake and I don't realize the time while I'm doing my research for the different types of flower tea and the best combination for my newest special menu.
I take all the challenges for me to give my customers the best quality of ingredients that I'm using at a low price. I insert myself to every customer and I infer that every customer was not rich, most of them have an average life. What makes me happy is their own storyline. The story inside their heart that brought it with them to share it with me and to my coffee shop.
My team comes up with the idea that we don't just make coffee, tea, pastries, and lunch menu. We make the idea to have a small booth that they can inscribe their stories like their breakup, love life, and most importantly was their worries and problems in life.
We ensure that our customers that their stories are confidential, only me and Yoongi knew their top secret. Why only me and Yoongi? Why not all of them? My team trusts Yoongi, mostly me.
I step inside the coffee shop, early in the morning to try all the combinations that I've researched a while ago. I could assess what flower tea has the best flavor and also that could approve my team.
"Where should I start?" I mumble to myself while glancing at the flower tea I have in my apartment. I place the combination of tea that I'll infuse in boiling water.
I take the pot out of the stove and place the boiled water into the three tumblers that have a filter with it.
"The first combination of tea was dried peppermint, dried hibiscus flower, and dried rose hips." I place the combination to the first tumbler and left a label on it. I reach the crushed ice from the freezer and set that aside so I could be ready after the tea brewed.
After a minute of brewing the tea, I place the crushed ice into the clean glass.
"I really hate peppermint." my body shivers when the taste of the peppermint shatters to my palate.
"The second combination is black tea, dried orange peel, and cinnamon and the last combination is dried yerba mate, dried lemon zest, and ground ginger" I repeat the process and try the two combinations of tea.
"I like the last combination." I nod with a smile on my face as I'm so proud of my invention.
"I feel so proud of myself," I told myself while patting my shoulder as self-support. I cleaned my working place and placed the tea inside the fridge.
My body throbs when hearing someone blasts inside the shop. "Did I lock the front door?" I implore to myself while preparing my metal stick to use from the stranger that blasts inside the shop.
"What were you doing here this early in the morning? It was like 5 in the morning." Justin mumbles as he set the metal stick down when he sees me ready to attack but I feel recourse when it was just Justin.
"I tried some combinations of flower tea that could be placed on our special menu. Like my signature." I announce while bringing out all the tea that I tested out.
"That was the tea that I tested a while ago. You should try all of them so I could decide what I should put out for the special menu." I utter while passing the tea to him. He takes a sip of all the combinations that I worked for.
"I like no. 2 but it seems, I don't know. Basic tea for me. Yes, It was merely seen in the coffee shop but in an authentic coffee shop, they sell this kind of tea." He lets out his opinion to me.
"What do you think we should sell?" I ask him.
"Why don't you try some amazing tea? Like magic. I've seen in the video about the butterfly flower pea. We should go to the open market and search for butterfly flower pea." He says as he sits down in front of me while drinking the black orange peel cinnamon tea.
I take the waffle out that I heat a while ago and give him the other piece. "Yoongi said that he won't be working today for some preparation. I don't know what preparation he needs to do. This is the menu for today and the money that he budgeted." I nod.
After eating breakfast, we go to the wet market to buy some of the ingredients for the lunch menu. "Korean cuisine?" I murmur while looking at the paper. Justin peeks on the piece of paper and snorts out.
"Korean cuisine? I don't know why we put this out on the menu."
"I think it's great when having a new cuisine in our shop. It's beef bulgogi, bibimbap, kimchi fried rice, Korean fried chicken half spicy, and kimchi tofu stew. I like this menu and I tried this before." I clarify while looking for the ingredients that will be needed for the menu.
"Really? As far as I know, your parents are American."
"I know. After my father died last year, Yoongi's father always visited us and brought some Korean food," I explain.
"Good morning sir." I greet the butcher as he smiles at me.
"What do you want, Ma'am?" He asks.
"5 kilos of beef tenderloin," I tell the butcher. He nods and starts to chop the beef.
After buying all the ingredients that will be needed for the lunch menu, we reach inside the authentic tea shop that sells the dried butterfly flower pea.
"Good morning, ma'am," Justin greets with a smile at the middle-aged woman.
"Good morning, what can I get for you?" She asks.
"I want some dried butterfly pea flower," I reply. She nods and gives me a 1000grams of dried butterfly pea flower. She's very thoughtful and tremendous when she gives us one of her signature flowers.
"It's a linden flower that I personally planted through my backyard and dried it manually. It's very sweet since it has a high mucilage content inside of the flower that can give you a sticky texture. You can blend it on a citrus fruit like a lemon that could give acidity to the tea and it will give you the finest flavor." She explains the details about the linden flower.
As far as I know, linden flower is herbal medicine for colds, inflammation, to lower your blood pressure, for relaxation, and most importantly it's good when you're on a diet.
We thank the middle-aged woman before getting out of the shop and walk back to the coffee shop.