I think I’ve done exactly 4 sunrise sessions in the history of ever.
Not because it’s not a beautiful time to shoot (it is), but mostly because my personality doesn’t wake up until around noon. Before noon, my entire existence can be summed up in Grumpy Cat’s face. Usually.
Unless you give me Cuban coffee.
See, I had no idea what Cuban coffee was until a few weeks ago. I met Lisa and AJ down in Key Biscayne, Florida around 7 AM for a shoot. Only the cool part that none of us realized is that we couldn’t actually get in to where we needed to be until an hour later. I then proceeded to locate the nearest coffee shop, and discovered Oasis Cafe.
I will pause here and admit that when I first drove past the Oasis Cafe, my initial thought was how many people have walked in there and never walked out, but I actually feel that way about a lot of Miami. #sorrynotsorry
Soon, however, my need to not be a snarling cow of a human being overcame my fear of possible death and I went inside.
And my world changed.
They had breakfast empanadas. And all manner of fried, golden deliciousness I couldn’t pronounce. I pointed and grunted at a few different things to try, and then asked for a large coffee. A few minutes later I was handed my breakfast……and what looked like one of those little cups they make to rinse your mouth out after brushing your teeth, only no one ever buys them. A shot glass. We’ll call it a shot glass.
They handed me a shot glass full of coffee, and I stared at it, and the guy in the apron handing it to me, and grabbed it. I then noticed everyone else around me had these little miniature coffee cups and they all looked happy and didn’t appear to be upset that they’d just gotten cheated out of the remaining 90% of their coffee, so I played along. I walked back outside, met Lisa and AJ again, and made some sarcastic comment about the coffee I just got, and drank it all. In one drink. And it was more deliciousness than I was prepared to handle. All I remember is AJ saying something about it being super strong and Cuban coffee and don’t drink anymore and possible heart failure, but I didn’t really catch the last bit because I was already walking back in for another cup or 5. This time I pointed at a larger cup, a normal sized small coffee cup, and asked them to give me that size coffee, please. They stared at me, then each other, then gave me that size coffee. Only this time it came with about 6 little shot glass cups.
Maybe they liked shot glass cups. Who knows.
Turns out after I drank that entire cup as well, minus the miniature shot glass I shared with AJ, that small sized cup normally serves about 6-8 people. Because, as it turns out, Cuban coffee makes our coffee look and taste like wimpy dishwater, and has ungodly amounts of caffeine in that little shot glass sized cup. I did not know this. But I knew it for the rest of the shoot. And so did Lisa and AJ. And everyone else around us.
I’ll be back in Miami in a couple of weeks, and you can bet your sweet bippy I’m heading back to that marvelous little hole in the wall cafe for breakfast. And MAYBE two little shot glasses of coffee. Heh.
Lisa and AJ, thanks for letting me come down and hang out with you guys. That was awesome.
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