No matter where I am in the world, the experience of getting a cup of coffee is more or less the same: you order a coffee from a menu and wait for it to be made. An anonymous person then hands the coffee over to you and you pay. You then say thank you and goodbye and you’re on your way. The coffee is fine, the experience is fine, but it is never memorable.

But when you get a cup of coffee at the coffee bar at Reed Elsevier in Amsterdam you notice that something else is going on. The two or three staff working behind the counter are always smiling and engaged. They clearly love what they do. When the cue at the counter is long, they perform a strange sort of dance to speed things up. It is wonderful to look at. When it is your turn to be served you feel they care by the attention they give you and customers miss them when they are not there.

So Wah (So) is the name of the lady who seems to make all this happen. It’s like she looks straight through you. She’s unconventional but service-minded. Her small team is disciplined and efficient. “How’s your coffee?” she asks with dreamy eyes and a big smile. “I made it especially good for you”.

Before you can answer her, her eyes are on the next person in the line. “What will it be?”

I forgot the name of the bar, but I remember the name of their biggest asset: So.