"So you wanna know what there is to save?" She asked the stranger in front of her.
He nodded.
She looked at his oddly unblinking eyes.
"Buy me a coffee and I will tell you," she said.
Silently he brought a cup from the counter over to the table they were sat at.
"Hey. What coffee is this?" She called to the boy behind the counter.
The boy looked at the stranger looking terrified.
"Don't worry about him. He's on a visit. What's the origin of the coffee?" she smiled.
"E-ethiopian, yrgacheffe, single estate," the boy stuttered.
"Fairtrade?" She asked.
The boy nodded.
"Small estate or plantation?" She asked.
The boy straightened a bit with professional pride.
"Co-operative. Locally roast too," he said.
"Thank you," she smiled and turned back to her companion.
"Please have a seat," she said indicating a chair.
He sat down gingerly, as if the chair could break.
She took a sip of her coffee.
"That is good coffee!" She exclaimed.
He still stared at her.
"Ok. So it is a bitter, central stimulant and wakens my senses, but this cup of coffee just put work into a farmers hands. Drinking this coffee means a village in Ethiopia is kept alive. Families have children that need schools and healthcare, meaning that this coffee enables education and improved health in the village. The growing, drying and roasting means employment and as long as I drink this coffee, they have work and an income. Buying this cup of coffe means I bought a family a meal," she explained.
The stranger stared at her.
"A single cup won't do this on its own, but if I buy a cup here every day and a hundred other people do the same. And if a coffeshop in New York, one in London, one in Singapore, one in Rio and one in Paris gets coffee from the same place. That means a lot of coffeecups, a lot of beans to be grown and roasted," she said.
He looked at the coffee.
"One person buying this coffee won't make much impact, but when many do it changes people's lives. That young woman in love with the boy next door can take a chance knowing that if he loves her too, they can safely start a life together, have love and food for their children because there will be income. They can raise their children safely, protected from illnesses because somewhere a human brain saw the potential to invent a vaccine. They can give their children education and hope that one of them becomes a doctor or teacher or engineer who can improve the village even more,she took another sip of the strong bitter liquid.
"Maybe, this cup of coffe bought a young boy a book on animals spurring him into becoming a veterinarian. Maybe he will find the solution to how to save the white Rhino. There are two female and one male left you know. He has low sperm count and the two females are infertile. They saved the panda from a similar fate you know," she looked at him. He still did not look convinced.
"There are a lot of implications in a simple cup of coffee," she said with a smile.