Next time you invite a friend or special someone to coffee, make sure you take a selfie and drink it too.Confused? Well, how about selfie coffee? More confused? Relax and order a hot brew of your choice at Bread Cafe in the city and don’t forget to send your selfie to the coffee maker for printing on your brew.
Selfie coffee is the first of its kind in the North East. The first coffee outlet to start this in the country is #selfieccino at Kala Ghoda in Mumbai. In Shillong, Bread Cafe has started selfie coffee at its outlets in Police Bazar and Laitumkhrah.
Rashi Vaswani, the 52-year-old proprietor of Bread Cafe, says she learnt about selfie coffee on Facebook. “It is a unique idea and adds value to the hot cuppa,” she says.
While Vaswani was contemplating ordering a machine from abroad, she came to know about a dealer who supplies the printing machine and the ink. One cartridge can print around 300 photos.
The coffee printing machine is similar to a usual printer except that the ink it uses is edible. One has to take a selfie, a dualfie or a groupie and send it to the number that the cafe provides. Then the photo is resized and uploaded in the printing setup and the printer brings out the exact image on the surface of the coffee. The ink used for printing does not add to the taste and you can enjoy the real brew.
Though Bread Cafe introduced selfie coffee in April it ran trials for over four days to train the staff for perfection as well as to observe how visitors to the cafe were responding.
“Customers, especially youngsters, took an instant liking to it. The youths are in the habit of taking selfies wherever they go. With the new introduction, they can now see the reflection of themselves on the coffee too,” says Vaswani.
The prolific businesswoman says the picture is so perfect that often customers feel sad to stir sugar into it. “We then give them straws to sip the coffee slowly without distorting the images at one go. There had been requests about added sugar but we also get customers who are either diabetic or take less sugar. So finally, you have to sip in your selfie,” she smiles.
Besides coffee, one can also have selfie shakes and cold coffees as well as cup cakes. One can also print messages on special occasions for a sweet surprise to beloved ones. The time taken for printing is minimal and one has to shell out a tad more than the usual price.
Vaswani informs that the special printer can print on a small cake or a pastry. “For birthday cakes we use icing paper to print photos and this we have been doing for years now,” she adds.
On the challenges in running the selfie coffee show, Vaswani says all the equipment come from China and even for servicing, “we have to get experts from outside the state”.
The local selfie coffee venture has got raving reviews on social media and Fridays and weekends draw the maximum customers.
Shillong is known for its cafe culture and each outlet gives a unique experience. Selfie coffee comes as a twist in the tale of high competition in the cafe business.
“Customers’ demands are increasing by the day. Now, youngsters go outside the state and the region for higher studies and jobs and they are aware of the changes there. When they come back they look for something different in services. This is one of the reasons that prompted me to think of the venture,” says the entrepreneur who is originally from Kolkata and shifted to the hill city after marriage.
The mother of two daughters says it is her elder one, Larisha, who usually looks after the cafes, which are famous in the town for its bakery.
“Many things can happen over a cup of coffee and selfie coffee makes the moment even special,” says Vaswani.
~ By Nabamita Mitra
& Willie Gordon Suting
