Social Distancing: the two words that have dominated our lives in the last month and a half. In anticipation of the potential lifting of community quarantine and lockdowns in different parts of the world, more and more people have been getting used to doing e-meetings for work and hangouts online for friends and family. While people have started getting used to this “new normal”, the single and ready to mingle have begun jumping online, causing a surge in sign ups for online dating apps and services.
While the coffee date as we know it could forever be changed by social distancing, it could provide for interesting new ways for people to get to know each other over cups of coffee and through Skype, Facetime, or whichever app you’ve already got set up. For starters, since it’s going to be a little more difficult to go out and actually get coffee, this could provide the opportunity for you and your date to share what coffee you’ve prepared for the date. Your date could’ve prepared a nice latte with some great capsule coffee and a milk frother, while you may have made some pour over coffee that you’ve been practicing to make with some new hand brewing tools you’ve procured during the quarantine. You could also swap recipes, talk about your like/dislike of the Dalgona coffee trend, or even decide to make different coffee drinks for each date.
The construct of relationships as they’re built through digital channels will take some time for people to adjust to, and though there is the lingering want to be able to get back out in the world, the reality of today’s situation is that we can’t really say for certain when those days will come back. The flip side to this is that more and more things have begun adjusting accordingly to this new world we’ll be living in, and the future of the coffee date will be no different. It’s going to provide for some creative new decisions, like providing background music instead of relying on café music, or even setting up some low-key décor around your living spaces to give the feel of your favourite coffee shop, and of course, the great cups of coffee you’ve already learned to or are learning to make and share stories over together.