It was the last day of VeeCon and, once again, my partner and I woke up absurdly early to be the first ones in line to guarantee our chances of thanking Gary Vaynerchuk in person for the influence he’s had on our lives. However, it turned out that the gates today opened at 9 in the morning instead of 8, so we were stuck out in the cold with thin sweaters on that welcomed the chilly air straight into our bones for an extra hour longer than anticipated. Good thing we brought leftover takeout from last night’s dinner.
The one thing missing that I desperately had to have, naturally, was a coffee. I needed warmth and caffeine, immediately. It was so cold that I started dancing from one foot to the other after, 1) sitting huddled on a vacant chair, and 2) receiving brief hugs, proved insufficient at keeping the biting weather at bay. I would have gone to get it myself, but there were rumors that we may be able to see Gary earlier, because a member of his team snapped a photo of us to send him to show who was already waiting.
While waiting in line, I was chatting with the people around me, and there was one individual who was about to go for a run. Upon hearing this, I jokingly yet seriously asked if he would consider going for a coffee run. He agreed and, to my pleasant surprise, not half an hour later was back with an almond latte from Spyhouse Coffee, which is a cafe in a hotel recommended to me by someone in the line with me from a previous day (I trusted this as he was a local of Minnesota and gave me a couple of options for local cafes rather than coffee chains, the latter of which I almost defaulted to again out of convenience).
The coffee was wonderful and perfectly timed in its delivery. It was a beautiful concoction of a thick, creamy, smooth almond nuttiness with an incredulous amount of foam and froth. This made it tough to get to the contents at the bottom of the cup, but it prolonged the drinking time of the beverage for a longer enjoyment of its tasty and warming effects.
In any other situation, my intuition says that I would rate this as a 7 out of 10 normally, but due to the circumstances of having waited for so long outside, I found it to be a warm welcome for my hands and for satiating my coffee craving. So, I would give this a solid 11 or 12 overall. Although, I did end up having some more black coffee about an hour later, also brought to me from Spyhouse, but that was mainly for the sake of stilling my shivers that had resumed. I don’t think that I would personally get this drink again, if I’m being totally honest, but I’d love to someday take a look at the actual coffeehouse for myself and to possibly order a different drink with 2% milk to keep the coffee review ratings somewhat consistent.
Nonetheless, shoutout to Jarvis (instagram @jarvissan25) for the much-needed coffee run that kept me warm and content while waiting! I still can’t get over how kind everyone was here; this weekend was truly wonderful, and I will be writing more about it in the future as I await next year’s event for sure.
Thank you for reading 🙂 2 more coffees here to go!