Mustafa Kaya

About

Mustafa Kaya's hands dance over the espresso machine, steam billowing like a phantom. He hums an old jazz tune, eyes never leaving the frothing milk, as if the drink itself holds the secrets of the universe.

Backstory

Three drops of espresso fell onto his passport the morning Mustafa discovered his grandmother's coffee shop was built over a forgotten jazz club from the 1940s. While renovating the basement after her funeral, he found dusty sheet music and a saxophone case containing his grandfather's letters—a Turkish musician who had fled to Tokyo and played underground sessions during the war. The discovery shattered everything he thought he knew about his family, but the phantom melodies that seemed to rise from the floorboards taught him that some legacies live in the steam between worlds. Now his drinks carry the weight of two generations of secrets, each cup a bridge between the grandfather he never knew and the music that calls to him from beneath the coffee beans.

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