Coffee mix test trials

“Oi, are you sure this shit is safe?”

“Nope! But hey, isn't that where the fun in experimenting is?”

“Hey that's maybe-”

—---

It was very quiet in Paradise Café when Zepp made his way up into it, only three other patrons in the coffee shop when he entered, and, one waiting for a to-go drink to be served, the other two a pair seated at a table, and they seemed to be finishing up and preparing to leave. He stepped in line behind the cherubun at being served, and waited for them to leave before walking up to the counter. The barista was very cheerful and upbeat, with an infectious smile and bubbly attitude. 

“Hey, welcome back Zepp! What can I get for you? Wait, wait, let me guess, you were gonna ask for an Iris Coffee, forgetting that they're served in the Rabbit Hole and not here, get flustered,then ask for it black, even though you would much rather get a Frappé as your second choice.”

The pride bun frowned, and averted his gaze away from Beanny, trying his best to hide his embarrassment. “Hey, maybe I want a black coffee this time…”

“Frappé then?”

“Please… You're not going to let me down with that, are you?”

“Maybe, maybe not, jury's still out on that one.”

She began preparing his drink, as he fumbled in his pockets for carats, ego clearly bruised. As she placed the finished concoction on the counter, he went to hand her the payment, she gave a glance around the empty café, a mischievous glint was present in her eyes, something he was well used to… more than likely a plan forming in her mind. 

“Say, how about I give you this one on the house, if you'd be interested in helping me out with a little project I've been working on?”

“Uhh…” He wasn't overly sure how much he wanted to partake in this mysterious “project”, but how could he decline free drinks?”

“Yeah, sure, what's it involve?”

Her grin somehow became wider, joy and excitement etched across her face. She practically bounced across the room towards the entrance, giggling, closing the door and flipping the sign around to “closed”.

“You’ll see, ooooh this is going to be great. Finish that up and I'll show you.”

That really didn't help his nerves, but too late to change his mind now, not wanting to burst her bubble. 

—---

Once he finished the Frappé, Beanny took the mug, cleaned it, and brought him toward a door behind the counter, labelled “Employees only”. Zepp figured it'd probably be just a storage room, similar to the one in Flint's arcade bar, only, well, filled with whatever coffee making supplies the barista bun needed rather than a variety of types of alcohol, or maybe a break room. He wasn't expecting whatever all this strange glassware and equipment was. 

The room in no way resembled the main area of the café. Whereas the café itself was warm and inviting, filled with rich woods and natural lights coming through ceiling high windows, in here was grey and sterile, more closely resembling the dreaded doctors office. Bottles and jars of a myriad of shapes, colours, and sizes lined the walls upon metal shelves, alongside empty vials, beakers and other glassware. A Bunsen burner and retort stand, as well as a ton of other weird sciency equipment stood on the workbench. He didn't really understand what this stuff was, but he was very much regretting accepting her offer. 

She handed him a white coat, gloves and a pair of protective glasses, and started putting some on herself. “To protect your eyes and your clothes. Don't want you to go blind or to burn holes into that jacket of yours.” It was difficult to tell if she was being serious or not, but didn't want to take the chance.

“So, what are we doing?”

“Okay, so first we're going to -”

She started explaining some long and elaborate procedure, which practically went in one ear and out the other. He just nodded and agreed, pretending to understand what she was saying. Beanny didn't seem to notice his confusion, and eagerly began setting up her equipment. He just followed behind her, and did whatever she asked him to. She began adding some strange powders and pastes from the shelves into a conical flask, added a bit of water, and began mixing them together. While she was doing this, she asked Zepp to crush some roasted coffee beans.

“What are they?” 

“Couple of different types of plants, all from Burrowgatory soil. I want to see how they'll react with coffee.”

 Once the beans were crushed, he carefully added them to the mixture. Once in, she got him to slowly pipe in more water, while she swirled the flask, the liquid turning to a warm brown colour. It seemed to be bubbling and fizzing quite a lot. 

“Oi, are you sure that shits safe?”

“Nope!”

The cherubun placed the flask onto the table, turned towards him, a huge grin on her face, her pure excitement clear in her eyes underneath the protective eyewear. Almost as soon as she took her eyes off it, the flask of warm brown liquid began foaming, pouring out all over the countertop.

“Hey that's maybe-”

Brown fluid began to fly everywhere across the lab. Zepp gave a yelp, diving onto the ground. Beanny just stood there unphased, a hint of disappointment in her voice. 

“Oh, well I guess that trial is a bust, that and I missed the explosion.” It took her a moment to realise where he had gone. “Hey, are you alright?”

She helped pull him, and he looked at the beaker. Now, instead of being half full, just a small amount of the liquid mix sat inside it, the rest sprayed around the lab, and on Beanny. 

“Yeah… Hell… Please don't do that again.”

“Oh I won't with this mix anyway, that wouldn't make for a good customer experience. Could you help me clean this up? Then we can try the next one.”

He laughed nervously. “I'm happy to help mop this up, but please don't make me witness another one of those.”

She gave a hearty chuckle. “That's fine, thanks for your help!”

Once the coffee concoction was cleared from the lab, he bid the cherubun farewell, leaving the coffee shop and returning down to Burrowgatory.