First [coffee] love

I sit down to a chai latte at Coffee Garden this morning. First off, where's the latte art? Don't all latte's come with a frothy leaf? One of those insignificant things you don't think about, but are surprised at it's absence. I take my first sip and the thought that crosses my mind is It's not as good as Empresso's.

Two minutes later and a couple more sips in, I know that's not entirely fair. The chai is good, just not as spiced and a bit more milky than I'm used to. But what can you say when "used to" means Empresso, the only coffee shop where you've actually had chai lattes? Bigger realization: If there's only one coffee shop you've really loved, isn't everything going to be compared to that? I realize there are many, many reasons why I miss the coffee shop on Miracle Mile, and I think it's because I started going to it so much, I loved everything about it. Everything about it became what I want in a coffee shop now. The balance of conversation buzz and people working. The cartoonist smoking and doodling outside. The customers who walk their bike in the front door and prop it by the wall to order. My favorite spot in the stool by the corner, looking out onto Pacific Ave. And Empresso was where I started drinking enough coffee shop beverages (but not actual coffee) to develop a list of favorites: mango black iced tea and cherry lime Italian soda for the light days, twisted mocha's and chai lattes when it was cold, occasionally a blended drink or white mocha for variation (then there was the time I tried vanilla lattes to see if I'd like them. Didn't last long). I'm so used to these that I expect beverages at any other store I visit to taste like them.

So now when I try to find another place, all I can compare it to is Empresso, because it's the only coffee shop I've ever really loved. Yet no other shop will make the same chai lattes or have art displayed from a local artist I've actually met. And D reminds me with a part animated, part sarcastic voice that if I keep looking for Empresso, I'm going to miss out on things that I could end up loving. I know he's right, and I know he hints at a bigger picture of loving but letting go of the old and finding the new, but I'm just not quite there yet. It takes time to love something.