“Let’s grab coffee?”

Now that we have entered phase 2, we can finally catch up on all our missed coffee dates.

Though frustrating, the past two months or so of social distancing measures have allowed us to reevaluate how we stay in touch with friends.

Physical vs virtual interaction

Humans are social creatures after all, just that we aren’t always upfront about it. “Grabbing a coffee” has always been a way we mask our real request - talk. to. me. please.

The good thing is, over the past two and a half months, we have learnt to leverage technology and incorporate activities in our video catch up with friends.

Besides “wanna (insert video conferencing app)?”, we also invited friends for virtual workouts, games, or watch parties.

But even these activities get boring after awhile.

Virtual workouts get a little tedious, and games get repetitive. Truth is, those activities get stale. Somehow, plain old grabbing a coffee with friends feels sweeter, even more so now (unless you drink kosong).

The tendency now is to rush to the nearest café or kopitiam, but wait. Take note that social gatherings are limited to up to 5 people in phase 2.

So what then for those with a big social circle? Well, a coffee catch up is not off the table. It’s just online. And this actually makes sense.

Make coffee together

While a face-to-face meeting is nice, over the past two months, we’ve come to enjoy having the comfort of home and companionship at the same time.

Besides, when at home, the coffee catch up also has that added activity element. With coffee places closed in the past few months, everyone could finesse their coffee making methods. Perhaps dust a little cocoa powder or try some coffee art.

In my own coffee awakening, I realised that there are actually a lot of coffee recipes out there that I can make at home, from simple blends to fancy brews.

So, I made one.

In the video, Andrew gamely joined me in making coffee using NESCAFÉ’s range of coffee products and recipes. I made the cafe inspired NESCAFÉ Dark Mint with NESCAFÉ Gold while he prepared the local flavoured NESCAFÉ Gula Melaka Pandan Kopi with NESCAFÉ Gao Siew Dai.

I’m no coffee connoisseur but I think my creation tastes great. Really, the coffee, chocolate, mint and milk meld together to give a cool refreshing taste. You can find more recipes on the NESCAFÉ Facebook page.

Though coffee making may be routine for some, trying out new recipes and sharing that experience with friends can be fun. In my case, it was a little fumbling and schadenfreude at my expense.

Time for coffee and conversation

With coffee sorted, sit back, sip coffee, and start chatting. No more intermittent conversations like the ones in other virtual activities, and no need to wait in line in crowded cafés or busy kopitiams.

Since the home café is always open, we can have a virtual coffee catch up anytime, for midnight musings, during lunch, or even in between work video meetings. After all, work from home may still be around for sometime yet.

Just chill with a cup of coffee in the comfort of home and let the conversation flow. For more feels, throw in the café or kopitiam background (add in vigorous coffee stirring sounds ala kopitiam uncle style for extra kick).

If these all sound a little too contrived, well... maybe it is.

But these are unprecedented times and repurposing the familiar “grabbing a coffee” onto the unfamiliar virtual platform is refreshing.

So, sip your coffee and let the last drop be the cue to end the video call. No more awkward bye byes.

Bye.

If a coffee catch up sounds sweet to you, here’s what could make it sweeter. NESCAFÉ is challenging you to #ShareYourNESCAFE with a friend, where the 20 most creative entries will win a S$100 NESTLE Hamper.

• Simply post a unique NESCAFÉ creation OR a photo/video of how you and your friend(s) creatively share a cup of NESCAFÉ on your IG.
• Include the hashtags #ShareYourNESCAFE and #NESCAFELiveYourMoment and tag @NESCAFE_sg on both posts.
• Make sure your account is made public.

The contest ends July 3, 2020. Refer to @NESCAFE_sg on Instagram for the full terms and conditions.

This sponsored post by NESCAFÉ reminded the writer to grab coffee with people.