just my forty cents
Have you ever received something amazing for free? Maybe someone passed along a treasured novel to you, one which became part of your life’s creed; maybe someone tossed to you a word of encouragement that did unsaid repair to a wounded day. Today I received something for free. Well, precisely, not totally free, but very quite nearly. Almost.
In the cafeteria area at work, there are just over a half dozen drink/food-related vending machines lined up for everyone’s convenience. They provide everything from the daily Diet Coke to a three-course seafood dinner. All in vending machines! imagine that! But there has been one that caught my roaming eye from day one. A coffee/tea machine. I’ve asked myself, “how can that thing brew coffee on demand and then dispense it to a customer?” Today, I took the dive.
For forty cents, yes, only forty cents, I bought a shot of espresso. Of espresso! Instant espresso! Surely, it’s going to suck and I will hold back vomit. Could I possibly be proved wrong?
With my forty cents deposited in the vault and an empty paper cup in the retaining unit/thing/device, I selected “Espresso, strong” with the famous touch of “D” and “3″. Then the magic began. I heard coffee beans (God knows how old they were) being ground, fall into some chamber, and then the famous shot was pulled. In the matter of 30 seconds, I had about 2.5 ounces of “espresso” in my little, previously empty cup. Do I dare drink it? Monday’s call for bravery.
Simply put, it was the best forty cents I spent all day. Granted, a general shot of espresso is 1 ounce, thus the rest of this particular one was water. It was not strong, as I had fallen prey under the advertisement of such, but it was sooooo smooth. I’m generally not one for smooth espresso, in fact I might say I would choose bitter over smooth any day, but in this case, it was superb. A forty-cent shot of smooth espresso to end my day. Brilliant!
I know that sometimes my shy and antisocial nature takes severe hold of me, but I should know better next time to never distrust vending machines.
August 4th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
I too recently discovered the wonder of these all-in-one dispensers of tastiness. I attend a small college and there’s one in the cafeteria. I always see people with the cups, so I figured it can’t be that bad. I tried it and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t get the espresso; I got some vanilla thing - so good and so (surprisingly) cheap! Needless to say, I’m now a regular customer.