Colress likes to think that he is a man of utility. Function over fashion. When it comes to food or drink, nutrition should be one's utmost concern, with flavor being secondary. Thus, in accordance with his beliefs, coffee should be consumed for the sake of caffeine. No need to buy artisanal beans from Alola or spring for strange novel flavors like pecha-rawst berry crumble! Even the cheapest beans have caffeine, and he doesn't want to divert too much of his funding away from his research. As such that's what he buys, and that should be all he needs.

Yet, here he is again, ready to dump another mug of coffee down the drain.

Color warms to his cheeks as the corners of his mouth tick into a frown. How many cups had he wasted this month? There isn't any point in counting because Colress already knows that the answer is somewhere between excessive and egregious.

"Flavor is superfluous. As long as it can get me through the night!"

Stubbornly, he brings the mug to his lips and promptly gags. Its bitter and burnt flavor is even more pronounced with the reduced temperature. Truly unpalatable!

What can be done to remedy this?

A coffee connoisseur he is not and has no desire to be. There are other ingestible stimulants out there that can help him work through the night, but energy drinks remind him too much of his hellion-esque roommates from college. Then there's tea, but he brews that even worse. He shakes his head and drags his eyes over to his bag of pre-ground beans.

"I really should just use what I already have."

Reluctantly, he sets the mug down and heads over to his laptop. It won't do him any good to continue preparing coffee with his current method. Scalding when fresh and disgusting to stomach if he waits too long for it to cool, which is often (the allure of research is distracting). It's time to search for a new brewing technique. The sooner he gets this done, the sooner he can return to his work.

The bad news is that Colress has to power through the rest of the night, no caffeine to aid him. By the morning, he is a bleary-eyed, staggering mess. He falls face first into bed, not even bothering to take off his glasses. This new way of coffee preparation better be worth it.

A few hours later and it's time for breakfast. Yes, it can still be called breakfast despite it being 16:00. After pushing himself out of bed and making minor modifications to his disheveled appearance, Colress trudges over to the kitchen. The pantry yields a nutrient bar. Then from the fridge, he retrieves the jar of what could be called his first beverage experiment.

He filters it and pours himself a diluted serving as suggested. After scrutinizing the liquid for a good few seconds, he takes a tentative sip. It tastes a little flat, but there's a pleasant sweetness to it, which is welcome after the years of bitterness that he's had to endure. Colress smiles. Shame that he'll have no use for the coffee maker anymore, but it didn't cost much anyway.

Looks like cold brew coffee is a success!

Author's Notes: Here's a not so serious chapter. I feel like Colress is the type of person who would live on nutrient bars. I also imagine he stays up late a lot working on whatever project or experiment he has going on. Kind of like living a voluntary night shift sort of schedule. Night shift doesn't have to mean you drink coffee though (I don't really, except on the toughest of nights).

Don't worry. I'm still working on the next chapter of the main story (chapter 11). It has some scenes I've had in my head for a while, so I hope I can bring them to life.

"Snowflakes" is a fun type of stress relief from writing the main story and is helping me get past writer's block right now. Next chapter should be a Kyurem chapter.