Beautiful Black

(Ceritanya kan ada lomba summer fun ' 06 something di Starbucks. Caranya adalah dengan ikutan nulis sekian ratus kata dengan tema 'Starbucks and me' dan disubmit lah lewat email. Being an-obsessed-to-be-writer-and-adore-any-competition-involved-writings-although-never-win kind of girl, menulislah gue sebuah cerita.

Ternyata, kemarin gue dipanggil ke Starbucks Sudirman Place untuk acara launching Signature Hot Chocolate dan juga pengumuman pemenang. Pas dateng ternyata nama gue ter-submit as 'duy', dan mbaknya bilang 'aduh, Duy ya? dicariin nih. kok kamu gak pake nama asli sih? sayang yaa. Nanti kita nggak bisa cocokin sama KTP dong. Soalnya, kita nggak boleh korespondensi sama peserta, jadi kita nggak bisa kontak kamu deh.'

Deg2an dong gue. Apalagi gue anaknya keGRan tuh, jadi berasa harusnya menang tapi nggak bisa gara-gara nggak pake nama asli.

Lalu besoknya gue ke kantor, dan gue buka tuh file gue, ternyata emang gue pake nama asli. Email gue doang masih duy duy duy. Huiks. Emang gak jodoh aja. Tapi lumayan banget sih, free flow drink dan pastries, 4 bungkus kopi buat dibawa pulang, dan 4 vouchers any tall beverage -dicolong Ijul 2 biji tapinyah-.

Anyway, karna kalah, gue post aja di blog gue!)

One of my first drinks is coffee. Even on my chubby little years, my meaningless mumbles seems want to protest any advertising uttering coffee as the best drink for children. I, currently, urged to fight for the babies’ right to choose their favorite drink. I am pro choice than pro milk. I might go to give free lectures for mommies to understand their kids genuinely. Of course Starbucks would be available during the lesson.

We lived at a housings way far from urban area. At the moment, you can easily count number of stores both exist and accessible for us to reach. My dad loves black coffee. I don’t know if he were sure of it or merely have no choice. But, seeing him drinking coffee at least twice a day had make me contagious of its unique taste.

Sometimes, watch him drinking, I wonders. Why this black liquid could taste so good? All things around me always yield that black or dark is bad and bitter. If you baked brownies and its get too dark then they said that it’s a failure. If you have black skin (in Indonesia only, I suppose), people would promote any crème to make it fairer. The pigeons represent peace and harmony is the white. The black one stays at zoo. Brides always use white. Meanwhile, black would be useful on funeral.

Yet, this liquid seems so strong and powerful. When my mommy meeting her friends they would have colorful drinks or tea, accompanied with crackers or cakes. And indeed the situation was light, cheery and full of laughter. As the opposites, the daddies would have this black drink as their partner to have more serious conversation. It usually done in the night, completed with the smoke of cigarettes and sometime with chess or television if it were on world cup nights.

So I ask myself again? Does this black thingy should have this creepy atmosphere? Since I, being a female, love to have coffee more than other colored drinks, I began to feel insecure and consider coffee as my guilty pleasure. I’m afraid of the look in people’s eyes if they see women drinking coffee. It seems as I just make terrible sins. But I couldn’t deny the desire also. Thus I always wish that I could have this sweet black liquid without losing my woman touch.

Being not that metro people person and prefer to live life casually and doesn’t really enjoy the night life, if I go out I would choose fast food with standard drink, or just hang out at friends and then did some quickie with instant coffee. If I have to stay up late for studying, then my dad’s black coffee still help me much. That’s my zenith with coffee before I start to work in Jakarta, the place where I first met the green lady with crown.

I remember of visiting Starbucks Thamrin for my beginning. I indeed felt kinda left out to see Starbucks visitors were mostly out of my league. But the urge to try the rumor myself of having the best coffee in the whole world killed the anxiety. I was ordering Hot Caramel Latte with glass, not because it was cheaper but because I thought fiber would be too hot to handle. I just know recently that it merely one of Starbucks efforts in being friendly with the environment. Please forgive my out of date mind.

Sipping my coffee, I was wondering around the room. This was the exact contrary of what I always feel of the black liquid named coffee. Yes indeed smokes from cigarettes are exists, but it didn’t feel creepy as my old pictures of the daddies gathering nearby my home. Women are here, there and everywhere. They have cheery laughter with their friends, boyfriends, or just alone with laptops and novels. The baristas are friendly and really guide a newbie like me in having the best composition of coffee. And indeed the coffee is the best.

Finally, I met the lovely black liquid coffee that could relieve my guilty pleasure and transform it into total delight. Observing the atmosphere, I feel my self at ease. It seems that this place is indeed buffering my hobby of reading and makes my novel more interesting. From being afraid of entering the location, until willing to stay there until late.

There is one lifetime partner that should not be separated from coffee, namely atmosphere. For this case, I should bestow all my thumbs up for Starbucks in making this atmosphere and coffee brewed together nicely. Already I go and journey and try and taste various coffees at numerous places of Starbucks. All of them are maintaining this soul mate of coffee and atmosphere by providing cozy cushion and music. Enough to enhance the coffee at its best and sufficient to make me struggle for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

Unfortunately, the wallet of mine didn’t work quite well on my early days in Jakarta. I must admit that I somehow could not afford of buying Starbucks. Sometimes I go there with one or two friends and only drink a cup of coffee just to meet the atmosphere and fulfilling our addiction by sharing drops of coffee. Doubly, once or twice I also skip one of my meals so that I could have a glass of Vanilla Late on my own. It was quite a day, but somehow if you already fall in love, you would do anything to have it.

I consider in seeing Starbucks as one of my self acknowledgement. For an ordinary girl with conservative thoughts like me, meeting Starbucks had somehow add another point of view in life that support my transformation into extraordinary. I might still prefer quiet place like the one in Setiabudi Building or Tebet due to its calmer surroundings which highly suitable if I need to finish my work or simply my Paulo Coelho, yet the hyper place like the Thamrin is as well going so fine with my have fun go mad mood on weekend. Still, any places of Starbucks indeed change my childhood notion that coffee is only for men and it should be drink at creepy places. Thank God now Starbucks is also brewed outside Jakarta, or else there would be several teenagers like me that would still find her acknowledgement.

Now I could sip my coffee with my friends or just with my brownies without being guilty. Well, sometimes I do feel guilty with my weight if I did order any Grande Espresso and sandwich (mostly pastries also). I just couldn’t resist the temptation. Anyway, although it’s black, now I could tell the world, that Starbucks is a Beautiful Black!