Sunday Scribblings: Coffee

The little boy sat at the table eating his Lucky Charms. His grandmother was preparing the hot tea for him and his grandfather, who was reading the Sunday paper. With both his grandparents distracted, the boy grabbed for his grandmother's pink mug and took a sip of the black liquid. 'Eww!' he yelped as this grandparents checked to see what had happened. When they realized what he had done, they chuckled. He was obviously not a fan of black coffee.

His grandmother brought the two mugs, the grandfather's straight tea and the grandson's sugar and milk tea, to the table.

'What is that?' the little boy pointed to the pink cup.

'It's coffee, don't you like it?'

'It's gross,' he said.

She then told him to wait a moment as she went to the counter. She was doing something to the dark liquid that he couldn't see. Concocting some potion. When she turned back around, the liquid had changed color. 'I just turned this coffee into tea,' she said. And in fact, the color of the liquid in her cup matched the color in his own.

'Huh?' grunted the boy.

'Try it. I'll bet you'll like it more than the tea.' So, he tried it. And he did like it. It tasted completely different. Sweet and milky, it didn't even resemble the liquid that was in the cup.

'What's this?' he asked, excited.

'It's a potion I made from the coffee. It's L A Tea.'

'L A Tea? It's better than this,' he pointed to the white mug in front of him.

'That's because it's a magic tea that is transformed from coffee.'

'Really?'

'Yep.'

'Can you do magic? Are you a witch?' he asked matter-of-factly.

'I used to be. Just ask your father.' She cackled. 'But I've forgotten all my spells. Just that potion. That's all I have left.'

'Wow.'

His grandmother passed away soon after, quite unexpectedly. And with her went her secret potion. He tried, in vain, to describe that potion that his grandmother had called L A Tea to his mother and his sisters. But they could never recreate it. No one could. Because no one knew what kind of tea this L A Tea was.

And then one day he happened upon the concoction. He was 16 and his girlfriend had convinced him to go to a coffee house. He ordered an iced tea. And she ordered a Cafe Latte. To the latte she added a couple sugars. When they sat, she asked him to take a sip.

'I don't do coffee,' he responded.

'Oh, just try it.' She flirted with her eyes.

'Fine,' he said, smitten. He sipped and his eyes bulged as he just about screamed 'L A Tea'.

His girlfriend, taken aback, stared at him and answered, 'huh?'

'What is this?' he asked.

'It's a latte,' she said, perplexed at his reaction.

He laughed. He had finally discovered the secret of his grandmother's final secret potion.