An Interview at the Coffee Cave

On my latest trip to the island, while my own Blumaroos took a spin (or ten) on the Merry Go Round, I sat down with Delilah to get the scoop on what it’s like to run one of the busiest coffee joints in Neopia. She greeted me with a smile, as she always does, and continued to clean the well-loved, liquid-splotched counter. Her white cap was a little askew, and its ribbon was half-untied, which was evidence of her busy morning. For the moment, however, of the customers were quietly chatting, reading, or sipping their own drinks, so she had time to answer some of my questions. . I got out my pad and paper, blew across the top of my fresh Minty Moach Mocha to cool it off, and began.

lunarchronicles (LC): Good morning, Delilah! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

Delilah (D): Of course! Always good to see you around. Can I top off your mocha for you?

LC: Actually, I’m good, thanks! So, Delilah, can you tell me a little bit about how you came to run the Coffee Cave?

She put the cloth down on the counter and sighs. I sensed immediately that there was a history there.

D: Well, a long time ago, the Coffee Cave used to sit in Tyrannia. It was always an adventure there, and we got a lot of traffic due to the concerts that play there every single day. I grew up in Tyrannian, and when my parents decided to retire to Mystery Island, they left the shop to me. In fact, I used to be a Tyrannian Shoyru, way back in the day. I miss my old color sometimes…

She sighed, looking off into the distance wistfully, and continued.

D: Anyway, King Roo visited Tyrannia on a tour of Neopia, and he was so enchanted with my coffee that he persuaded me to move the business to Roo Island permanently. He even helped me pay for my color change – I think staying in my old paint job would have scared some of the Blumaroos here!

LC: Wow! That must have been an honor, having the king drink your coffee personally. Does he still come to the shop?

D: Quite often. At least once a week.

LC: Can you tell the Times what King Roo’s favorite drink is?

D: Well, he likes many of them! I think he’s tried the entire menu by now. He orders the Qando Fruit Tea a lot, though – he often makes diplomatic trips to the Lost Desert because he likes their food so much. Would you like to try some?

She brought a cup out from under the counter and poured a thick, yellow-green liquid into it. The cup was blue with red spikes, not unlike an actual Qando Fruit. It looks a little suspicious, and I was perfectly happy with my mocha, so I politely declined.

LC: Let’s move on to another topic. Can you describe an average day at the Coffee Cave?

D: Usually I’ll work from morning to night, especially on days when there’s a lot of traffic between storytelling and the poetry contest. We get a lot of writers in here – but I guess I don’t need to tell you that! And there’s a lot of serving coffee, of course. I probably brew several hundred cups of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate a day, and that doesn’t count all of the desserts I serve. I would say that the Tigersquash Ice Cream is my most popular seller. The pets around here can’t get enough of it!

As she said this, a large group of Blumaroos entered the shop, and sure enough, each of them ordered a heaping bowl of ice cream. I waited patiently and listened to them chatter about the latest competitor’s in the king’s Dice-A-Roo Tournament while I waited. My mocha was finally cooled off, and I sipped up delicious mouthfuls of mint and chocolate until Delilah had finished with her customers.

D: Sorry about that.

LC: It’s no problem! Is there a lot of talk about Dice-A-Roo in here?

D: Oh, yes – well, about all of the games, of course, since Roo Island is home to the games room! But we do get a lot of dice game traffic because it’s so popular, what with the avatar and all. We’re even open late enough to catch some of the Deadly Dice aficionados. I think we have a Dice-A-Roo jackpot winner in here at least once a day. Of course, I’m the real winner, because they use some of those Neopoints to buy a celebratory coffee or two from me!

LC: Have you ever played Dice-A-Roo yourself?

D: Oh, once or twice. Sometimes one of my customers will have some dice, and we’ll play together if business is slow – but we don’t play for Neopoints. If they’re really good, and get all the way to a silver dice, I’ll occasionally give them a free cup of tea or a bun.

I made a note of this in my notebook, so I would remember to buy a set of dice so I could play Delilah another day and maybe win a free hot chocolate. At this point, I realized that I was almost done with my cup of coffee, and knew that I needed to go check on my own pets before they spent all of my money on the Merry Go Round.

LC: Thank you so much for talking to me, Delilah. I’m out of time for this article, but you’ve given me great insight into the Coffee Cave! I appreciate it very much.

Delilah smiled at me and whisked my cup under the counter, cleaning it off in no time. And it was a good thing she did, because she already had a line of customers waiting to order some tasty concoctions. I smiled and packed away my things, already looking forward to the next time I would be back, and headed out into the sunny Roo Island day once more.

If you enjoyed getting to know Delilah, why not pop over and buy a cup or two from her? And stay tuned for the next article – I’ll be talking to some other Neopian shopkeepers to learn more about their lives and the shops that we all love to poke around in!