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Blog: Olives in the Grand Cafe

I would not consider myself a coffee enthusiast, but I do consume more than I would like. After averaging eight cups a day, I now manage to keep my upper limit at three cups – I think, after a while my body will be thankful for that.

By David Matuschek, student MSc

Urban Environmental Management

This coffee drinking habit makes me a loyal customer to the Grand Café, and one question that troubles me already since months concerns certain small, green friends that are apparently sold there: the olives portion for € 3,-.

I have never actually met someone who bought them or even would have considered doing it – I don’t like olives, but three euros are probably even for an olive enthusiast pretty optimistic. Maybe the Grand Café staff is just not as skilled in sales as the marketing gods from the Chinese food serving one floor higher, who seem to attract half the university population every day. But maybe the olives are a lie, a mystery, a phenomenon, dwarfed only by century-years old secret societies. No one actually knows if they exist or if they are travelling East Africa to solve the global hunger problem.

Well, it is probably not that dramatic. Maybe not even as spectacular as I want it to be. Just a portion of olives, not the most standard thing to be sold at a cafeteria, but definitely nothing worth writing about. There might be an easy, realistic answer to the whole matter. But that is not the point. It is so fascinating and interesting, almost a basic human need to see a conspiracy in even the simplest things in life.

One day I decided to put an end to that pointless speculations with friends and bring light into the darkness. I finally stepped outside my comfort zone and asked the guy if they really have the portion of olives available. The answer was somewhat surprising: they don’t. Thinking about it, this finding is rather sad. The one or two hipsters worldwide who might end up at Wageningen and love to have 3 euro olives with their coffee will be disappointed. But if that ever happens, I am optimistic that the consequences will be manageable.

With this blog David is competing to become a blogger for Resource.

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