Your Stress in a Cup of Coffee, Café No Name

When I was living in Mumyeong City, there was a place called 'Café The No Name' along my route to work.

We usually just called it No Name, or simply 'the café.'

It was a tiny café, barely 16 square meters, but because the owner roasted the beans over an open flame, the rich aroma of coffee filled the air from blocks away. The owner always left the windows open while roasting, and perhaps because of that, the narrow café was always bustling with customers lured in by the smell.

This place had one peculiar rule.

After ordering your coffee, you were supposed to write down, on a memo pad the shop provided, whatever stress you'd been carrying that day.

Getting chewed out by your boss, losing something precious, tripping on your way to work —

Once you'd jotted down whatever had been eating at you, you'd hand the note to the owner, who would toss it into the fire and roast the coffee beans over those very flames.

Here was the curious part: the worse your day had been, the deeper and richer the coffee turned out.

At the time, I was going through a rough patch — I'd been abruptly dumped by someone I'd been seeing for months. Then one day, drawn by the aroma of Café No Name, I wandered in. Bawling my eyes out, I scrawled every curse and heartache about my ex onto the memo pad and shoved it toward the owner. He burned it and roasted a beautiful batch of coffee.

The coffee I drank that day was so deep and mellow, it made me forget all the sorrow of the breakup.

If you're ever having a day weighed down by stress, stop by Café No Name.

You just might find a cup of coffee that can burn your stress away and leave you feeling refreshed.