April 26th, 2024.
The AC is not working. It’s still morning in Vientiane, but already we are at 36º Celsius. The high temperature expected today? 41º Celsius. It’s the fault of the energy transformer across the street, the AC not working that is, the staff tells me. It’s been failing since yesterday. I’m in café called Caffeine, it’s still semi-fresh inside, but people are running away from the heat during this time in the city. The transformer is technically working, but only in low voltages. Anything that requires high power, like the Italian coffee machine, and (almost) equally important, the AC, can’t run.
“Only cold brew coffee”, the staff tell me apologetically. It’s a lovely café, modern, opened less than a year ago. I decide to stay, to the surprise of the girl behind the counter. She is feeling the heat, even though it’s still feel fresh, at least compared to the outside.
I sit at the counter and spot James Hoffmann’s “The World Atlas of Coffee”. Give me a great book and at a Café and I could stay there for hours.
At 11:30, the power is back. The staff turn the AC on and at the sound of the little beep and the wave of the flaps, we are all immediately happier.
It’s at this café, reading a coffee table book… about coffee, that I realize, I love cafés. I like coffee, but I love cafés. There’s a passage on Hoffmann’s book that reflects this love:
“Coffee drinking has evolved from simple morning stimulation into an expression of self, an expression of values or of conscious consumption”
Each café has personality traits and values that will eventually define its customers. People search for places that represent what they stand for, their attitudes, their values, and their desired lifestyle. A great café, more often than not, comes with a great, authentic, personality. To enter a café filled with regulars is to enter a tribe. Like this, every café becomes not only a small community, a small sub-culture, but also a new tribe to interact and discover.
The first customer after the AC starts working enters the Café. This one, Caffeine, it’s all about great engendering. The best tools to make precise coffee. Refined, unsuperfluous, millimetrical. Function over form. The customer, as this café, is sleek. Dark gray polo shirt, dark blue pants, dark leather bag. He fits perfectly in the space.
Our AC happiness is short-lived. The AC turns off. The power transformer fails again. We look out the window. There’s the transformer, workmen are inspecting it. The sleek customer stands up, he looks worried. After a couple of minutes, he leaves in a rush, he is not ready for the heat right now, not today.
