Atlanta merchants offer interesting, creative Valentine gifts
It all started with CaffeCrema’s offering of five new flavored lattes for Valentine’s Day. Send your sweetheart a cup of coffee. It’s a new take on flowers, candy and cards.
Three of the five lattes are really different, explains owner Tanya Beers. The first two new lattes are traditional, “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.” It’s the next three which tell the tale. “Bad Romance,” “Ugly Break Up” and “Crazy Ex” are these coffee expressions.
Turns out Valentine’s Day hasn’t always been about sweetness. One tale is that St. Valentine sent a letter to his sweetheart from jail signing it, “Your Valentine.” Others took up this sentiment and turned it into the celebration of endearment.
So, the idea arose, why not go around and ask other merchants in downtown Atlanta if they had anything unusual to offer the customer looking for a different Valentine gift? Not fancy, not made with lace and suggested verses.
Three other merchants found something one might give.
■ Jana O’Rear had a hand-decorated gift book idea from her Jana’s Merchantile store.
■ Misty Carter in her Atlanta Flower and Gift shop found a decorated charcuterie board to offer as a gift.
■ Ted Brabham thought his 1920’s porcelain “Limoges” dresser and vanity set would be a perfect gift from his Camelot Manor store.
■ And Elena Johnson, mother to owner Tanya Beers, holds a cherry and amaretto latte as CaffeCrema’s gift coffee Valentine.
These different gifts should not supplant the Valentine gift giving idea. Gentlemen are to be thoughtful. The occasion is, rather, one of the town merchant’s best days for serving the public with something sentimental in another sense of the word. Something special.
Maybe the giver could just sign their gift, “From Your Valentine” and let the relationship on this special day take its course.
On the other hand, better get your gift latte soon and on time. After Feb. 14, there will be no further Valentine coffee lattes.