Weasel coffee and... me

I have been a coffee lover since I was a child, not only because of the special taste of this drink, but also partly because of the way people enjoy it. I don’t know since when, many people have formed the habit of drinking coffee in the morning, as if coffee is an indispensable drink in daily life.

Novel Weasel Coffee by writer Tran Thien Huong. Photo: HM

Coffee shops sprung up like mushrooms after the rain, from sidewalks, street corners, and roadside, with customers from all walks of life coming to drink a type of fast-brewed coffee called “Kho” coffee. Crowded, noisy, chatting, gossiping, then gradually leaving for the day’s work.

For us kids, it was different. The places we went to were luxurious and elegantly decorated cafes and salons, with oil paintings or ink paintings hanging on the walls. And the most beautiful place was still the small platform in the corner of the room. There was a beautiful cashier sitting on a high chair, dressed fashionably enough to make young hearts flutter, a few absent-minded smiles but full of promises of peaceful bondage...

Most of the customers who come to the shop are usually polite and smartly dressed. After a cup of tea with the fragrant scent of jasmine and wolfberry, coffee is brought out on pretty “phin” filters. Just sitting there watching each drop of coffee slowly fall into the bottom of the cup, with the sad, distant music, in a closed space, we seem to be floating in another space where the coffee flavor suddenly becomes more delicious according to each person’s mood.

Two older men I knew, they seemed to be regular customers of the shop, connoisseurs and experts in enjoying coffee, chatting softly, gently as if afraid to disturb the tables next to them. They were discussing with each other about a special type of coffee, very delicious that very few people seem to have the opportunity to enjoy.

It is a type of coffee made from the undigested seeds in the excrement of a civet when it eats ripe fruit. When this species is in heat, its body emits a strange, seductive scent. Some places call it the Musk Civet, others call it the Fragrant Civet. I was very excited about that story, impressed and curious.

Later, when I became a coffee “fan,” I had the opportunity to travel to many regions and enjoy many cups of coffee with different flavors based on processing methods and additives. I still dream about that Weasel Coffee and wish to try it, even just once…

Holding in my hand the manuscript of the novel “Cat Coffee” by writer Tran Thien Huong, I curiously and eagerly opened it to read with the idea of ​​learning more about my dream coffee. Those are pages about human fate in the face of changes of the times. The main female character in the story is Xuyen. A beautiful, virtuous, well-educated girl, due to her family circumstances, she had to wander to a remote place.

In the mountains and forests with vast grass and wild nature, where the days of hard work, hardship and deprivation began without time to think about youth. Then Xuyen got married, thinking that she would go through a turning point in her life and life would be easier. But the joy did not last long, cruel fate turned her into a widow. From then on, she lived a quiet life, resigned and then bowed to her husband's family. There were thoughts that she only knew how to "show off to the trees and grass" and in the afternoons and lonely nights, she only knew how to open her heart to the sad, melancholy sound of the distant guitar...

Life always operates in its own way, but it is not natural that someone crosses your path. Fate arranged for Hung to appear. He is an intellectual, a young talent who is working as a manager of a coffee processing factory for a French businessman. He always shows a good character, loves people, loves himself, has a desire to live and live freely. So those wandering lives met, for Hung to meet Xuyen, for them to live fully with the emotions in love, to be moved by a figure, a scent, a vague, irresistible attraction.

It can be said that coffee - a strange plant whose seeds have produced an excellent drink, its flavor not only refreshes the spirit but also permeates the lives of each character, it secretly contains the feelings of the fates that have coincidentally been connected to the fertile, remote and sad basalt land. More special is Hung and Xuyen's coffee - a coincidental encounter of the flavor of love. It appeared from the first days of meeting through the commitments and bumpy experiences and then lingered, lingering on the newly built grave of love, spreading far and wide and becoming an anecdote.

I put the manuscript away and thought about my dream cup of Weasel Coffee...

Source: https://baodanang.vn/channel/5433/202504/ca-phe-chon-va-toi-4003241/