Everyone has a story to tell and environments like the different branches of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf are naturally conducive to sharing stories among friends. When you sit around a table with your favorite drink in hand, conversation naturally gravitates to catch-ups and updates, you-won’t-believe-what-happened-to-me-today, surprise announcements, and of course, discourses on events occurring around us. There is a misconception that only writers can tell stories but the truth of the matter is that stories can be told not only by printed words but also by various media, including the purely visual (photography) and the hybrid (comics, film).

The latest community promotion of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf reinforces this truth and encourages everyone to let loose their inner storyteller. My friends are excited about this because of the variety of ways they can express their experiences. One of us, for example, takes excellent pictures, and is considering a moody pieces to capture the moments when the Trinoma branch was his refuge from heartbreak. Another, experimenting with her mobile phone, has shot clips in the Dogme 95 mode (the avant-garde filmmaking movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg) about how her kids discovered the delights of Sunrise Ice Blended. Those among us who are neither photogs nor filmmakers are happy to wield the pen (or tap on the keyboard), ranging from the confessional style to the reportage to adopting literary techniques like flashforwards to tell our stories. We checked out the competition on the microsite and were delighted by the creativity we found on display (the faces on the cup covers were great) and moved by the different personal stories.

At stake is a trip to Hollywood, the grand prize. That’s a great incentive.

But what many have discovered is that it is fun to simply create entries and that telling stories is a reward on its own.

As we planned and talked about our entries, we happily spiraled into stories, going beyond what we were talking about – just as any barkada does.