Chapter 20: The Coffee Expert
The girls had learned about the subspace bag through Silvia's assistance.
Silvia had explained the proper usage of the subspace bag to them at the end.
They discovered that the translation ring could be used in much the same way.
Now that they possessed the subspace bag, their lingering worry about the theft of Eleas beans finally vanished.
“Thank you, Silvia.”
“Thank you, Silvia.”
“Silvia, thank you.”
They expressed their sincere gratitude to Silvia.
Liria retrieved a generous quantity of beans from her subspace bag and distributed them among her companions.
It was an impressive amount even to behold.
They decided to store the Eleas beans in their respective subspace bags, retrieving them only when truly needed.
Being able to access them so conveniently would make their work far more pleasant.
“With this much, we should be able to sell for several months.”
“Speaking of which, the coffee expert was supposed to arrive, wasn’t he?”
“Liria has been waiting the entire time.”
“That’s right.”
Liria continued to wait patiently for the coffee expert.
Ten minutes passed, and a figure finally appeared outside the cafe.
“Hold on a moment. If it’s a bad human, we’ll have to chase them away.”
“Ah, right. You two can see good and evil, can’t you?”
Silvia had no intention of allowing a bad person to evaluate the coffee, no matter who the expert might be.
Liria hoped the coffee expert would prove to be a good person.
Silvia flung the door open wide, seized Liria’s hand, and stepped outside.
A middle-aged man stood waiting there.
“Good day. I am Hong Doowon. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Hello. I’m Kim Gayoung, an employee of Elf Cafe. Hong Doowon-ssi.”
“Here, please. I brought it since I came on a whim.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“It’s not enough to taste the new variety of coffee you prepared, but I still consider it lacking.”
Hong Doowon handed a box containing donuts to Kim Gayoung.
Silvia examined Hong Doowon from head to toe.
If he was a good person, she would allow entry, but if he was bad, she would chase him away immediately.
Silvia confirmed the blue light and decided to permit his entry.
“Entry is permitted.”
Hong Doowon did not understand what they were discussing, but he assumed the silver-haired woman was the cafe’s president.
She possessed an incredibly beautiful appearance that stood out, along with a powerful presence of intimidation, much like Liria, so he concluded she must be the president.
“Good day. Are you the president?”
“The president here is Liria.”
“Liria is the president of Elf Cafe.”
“Huh?”
Hong Doowon could not hide his surprise at the idea that a child who appeared no older than ten was the president.
Was the concept that elves were presidents because it was an elf cafe?
Was he supposed to accept this concept?
Hong Doowon decided to accept their concept.
A concept cafe, very unique but interesting, he thought.
“Are you the president here, Elf-nim? Nice to meet you. I am Hong Doowon, the coffee expert.”
“Nice to meet you too. And Liria is not an elf but a High Elf.”
“A High Elf?”
Hong Doowon did not understand what a High Elf meant.
But since “high” meant tall in English, he assumed it referred to a superior elf.
“Ah, so you are a High Elf? Forgive me. I didn’t know.”
“It’s fine.”
Hong Doowon found Liria’s High Elf concept incredibly cute.
Hearing her speak casually did not bother him in the slightest.
“Was it Hong Doowon? There are such decent humans.”
“Thank you for looking after me.”
Hong Doowon looked at Silvia, who appeared much younger than him, and wondered what her concept might be.
Her ears suggested she was not an elf, and he could not imagine any other possibility.
A royal or noble concept? That would explain the casual speech.
Since she was called “noona” by a High Elf, she was likely of very high status.
Of course, from Hong Doowon’s perspective, they were accepting his concept.
“Mr. Hong Doowon, please come in for now. I’ll guide you.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Hong Doowon entered the cafe following Kim Gayoung with some confusion.
The interior of the cafe was not very large, and strangely, there were no tables or sofas.
Did they intend to sell only coffee as takeout?
If they could always maintain the exact taste of the coffee they had enjoyed earlier, it would be a wise choice considering turnover rate.
“We originally planned to operate the cafe like a regular one with tables and seats. We also planned to sell desserts. But after acquiring the special beans, we decided to discontinue that and sell only coffee as takeout.”
“Was there really such a special bean?”
“Wait a moment.”
Park Dahye showed Hong Doowon the 1kg of beans they had prepared in advance.
There was a standard for grading coffee.
The basic evaluation of beans was to check how many defective beans were in 350g of beans.
If the defective bean ratio was less than 5, it was considered the highest grade, Speciality.
They had prepared about three times that amount.
“May I check it?”
“Of course. The president wanted it.”
“The size of the beans is significant. I’ve never seen such beans in my life. All sizes are uniform.”
“Right? That’s why we decided to sell only coffee.”
Kim Gayoung had no regrets about giving up dessert sales.
She had spent a lot of time learning desserts, but ultimately, it was something she could give to Liria, so no regrets.
Seeing Liria eat desserts and happy expressions made it worthwhile.
“Then, I’ll check.”
Hong Doowon closely examined the beans.
But no matter how he looked, he could not find any defective beans.
After spending a long time looking through the beans to find even one defective bean, Hong Doowon finally declared defeat.
Because there was not a single defective bean.
“Did you deliberately remove the defective beans when you came?”
“Of course not. Our beans have zero defective beans.”
“Is that so? Is it so perfect that there are none at all?”
Hong Doowon was startled by the words that they weren’t prepared in advance.
Even 350g with less than 5 defective beans was considered the best beans, but 1000g with zero?
Normally, specialty beans have defective beans removed one by one, but the beans he was seeing had no defective beans from the start.
He could save time and labor costs for selecting defective beans.
The size was 1.5 times larger than any beans he had seen before, and he thought these were truly divine beans.
Liria thought it was natural for her coffee to have no defective beans.
There was no way defective beans existed in beans grown by elves, and any beans would be uniform.
“I think these are truly amazing beans. I’ve never seen such perfect beans.”
Liria smiled at the word perfect.
This was a result they had sufficiently expected.
Next, they brought the coffee freshly ground.
Hong Doowon took a sip of the 100% Eleas coffee brought by Park Dahye.
It was overwhelmingly superior to all the coffee he had tasted so far.
Moreover, the slight fatigue that hadn’t been relieved even by the coffee he ate earlier disappeared completely.
He hadn’t thought that the fatigue recovery effect would be so perfect.
Furthermore, his mind became clear, his consciousness sharp, and he felt incredibly refreshed.
“How is it?”
“The coffee’s inherent fresh acidity, sweetness, and nuttiness are felt. This prominent sweetness is the first time.”
“Right? I was surprised too.”
“Usually, the sweetness is expressed with caramel, chocolate, etc. But this coffee is completely different from those tastes. It’s a sweetness I’ve never felt before. Moreover, the acidity is the highest acidity that can’t be expressed with any fruit on earth. Also, the strong aroma and body are perfect. I’ve never had a coffee with such strong body that feels like it’s been roasted twice.”
Hong Doowon had tasted countless coffees, but this was the first time.
Usually, coffee’s sweetness is discovered by the aroma, but the 100% Eleas coffee had sweetness felt in the taste as well.
Hong Doowon didn’t particularly like sweetness, but the sweetness of the coffee he just drank was extremely special.
Suddenly, his taste buds changed, and he was attracted to the sweetness.
Moreover, since there was no bitterness, it must have been roasted twice, and he could feel the rich body.
Having tasted such a coffee in his life was truly amazing.
Moreover, the acidity he couldn’t express accurately among the fruits he had eaten.
It was an incredibly refreshing and fresh acidity, soaking him in happiness while drinking.
It was a coffee that couldn’t be properly expressed with his experience.
“I’ve never tasted such a coffee. If there are coffees like this in the world, all the coffees I’ve eaten so far seem like gutter water.”
“Right? I thought the same at first.”
“Liria’s coffee is the best.”
“Indeed. If I dare to evaluate it, I can boldly say that it’s overwhelmingly the top coffee on earth compared to all coffees on earth. Also, the fatigue recovery effect makes it refreshingly clear for the mind.”
“Right? Moreover, other coffees make you unable to sleep, but this one, if you want to sleep when you drink it, you can sleep. It’s different from the caffeine effect that prevents sleep.”
“Huh?”
Hong Doowon was startled by the fact that despite the caffeine effect, he could sleep if he wanted.
Because receiving the caffeine effect meant not being able to sleep.
But this said that if you want to sleep, you can sleep, ignoring such effects.
If there are such coffees in the world, it’s an incredibly great discovery, almost a revolution.
Hong Doowon knew the most expensive coffee he had tasted.
It was over 1000 dollars for 1 pound (453g).