Coffeelicious - 2023

2023 is off to a good start it seems; things are looking fairly bright so far - the weather is fairly cool, the streets are busy but tolerable, the weather right now is perfectly balanced. No better way to start off the year I'd say.

The month of January was a slow one though, it felt that way, many would agree too. Or was it "slow" because not a single day was wasted throughout this whole month?

There was always something cooking; starting with our plan to tour towards and around Barisal - Kuakata, then heading towards a streak of visits to a few specific areas around Gopalganj, and finally we all parting our ways in Khulna. Alas, things really didn't go as planned; thanks to a few sudden occurrences.

I did end up in Khulna though, which is why I was inactive for such a long time. I think I've never gone more than 3 to 4 days without posting here in Hive, so this surely was a first, a huge gap break of almost 2 weeks.

Yet, it was a much needed break I'd say.

Usually I prefer to keep my journeys and breaks short, 3 to 5 days to a highest of 7 days is the sweet spot for me, but this one was lasted for 2 weeks almost. But I had my reasons though, a lot of people on that side of the river were waiting quite eagerly to meet me , so I decided to extend my stay.

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This meetup here was a sudden one, it was just before I commenced on my journey towards Khulna.

However, this little meetup surely proves that sudden plans are usually the best ones; always holding more chances of being successful too. Some of the guys were in Dhaka around the same time, that is why we decided to cook up a sudden meetup. We have these meetings once a year, twice if possible. Not all of us live in the middle of Dhaka, some don't even live in or around Dhaka, the list goes on towards Rangpur, Jessore and some abroad too; so we really don't get the chance to meet a lot.

The most common and successful form of meetings are our Discord chat sessions, that's where it all started actually. We started with a small community of online games, and it's been almost half a decade now; the journey carried on with gaming tournaments, hosting events, investing in gaming related businesses and then some building their own online business together. If someone had told us back then, that a random free game and a small community would bring us all this far in terms of real life progress, then a lot of us would not have believed it.

Yet, in some abruptly miraculous way, we're all here right now. Many have come, some members left, newer members joined, a lot of ups and downs, but most decided to stay, especially the OGs.

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Even though we have a ton of cafes in Dhaka, it's still a tough job to find a proper one for a event or meetup. I say the vast number of options is what creates the problem.

Beans & Aroma was the first suggestion from one of the guys, some suggested a pizza place instead, but that's when I decided to sneak in Tabaq Coffee on the Facebook Poll option haha. Luckily, Tabaq won, and even though I consider myself to be a Tabaq connoisseur, I haven't gotten the chance to visit this branch before. It's a fairly new branch though, only a year old or so, it's also quite far from my home location, so you can't really put the blame on me lol.

Everyone was at the café before the clock hit 5PM, perfect timing for a cup of coffee on a cold winter evening. These guys are fairly punctual when it comes to food haha, they've maintained their timing quite well so far throughout every event and meetup.

When it came to order coffee most of the guys went with a cappuccino, which also was my suggestion. A proper cup of cappuccino will forever be my number one option, I guess, so I went ahead and made the suggestion. Just one of the guys ordered a lemon ice tea.

However, I of all people decided to go with some hot chocolate, me the cappuccino freak, taking a different path? I really don't know what made me lean towards ordering some hot chocolate, I guess it was the cold weather and a "new year vibe" that made me risk it. And as many of you know, I'm no risk taker when it comes to my coffee.

I also got a little fudge brownie for free, thanks to my Tabaq priority card which had achieved all 9 stamps, finally!

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ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵒᵛᵉʳᵃˡˡ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ ᵃʳᵉ ᵐʸ ᵒʷⁿ ᵘⁿˡᵉˢˢ ᶦᵗ'ˢ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿᵉᵈ

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We were all there for almost 2 hours or so, catching up properly, after almost a year.

Although our Discord meetups were quite a regular thing, and even though we know about each other's whereabouts, a face to face meetup and discussion is where its really at. No matter how advanced all these voice and video chats become, talking to one another in real life over a cup of coffee and good food will never be toppled.

Another plan and meetup will probably be in the making around summer time. A lot of the members weren't actually present on this day, the issue being distance, timing or some random hurdle. At least most of the boys are active on Discord. So for now we'll head back to our busy routines and lifestyles, back to relying on our random Discord hangouts and chats.

Yet, I hope that we will get the chance to meet again soon, conversating and sharing ideas over a good hot cup of coffee once more.

Cheers ☕️

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