After failing to secure a job yet again, sixteen year old Maika Sakuranomiya stumbles upon a certain cafe on her way home. She gets hired on the spot, and thinks luck is finally in her favor, until she learns about the cafe's quirky nature.
Written as a Fix Fic for the manga/anime series, Blend-S: Premium Blend fleshes out the Stile cafe’s employees, both new faces and old, and gives a peek into their lives, with added emphasis on the found family aspect of it all.
The series is presented in five "volumes", each focusing on a specific waitress and her daily life. A second installment simply titled Premium Beans puts more focus on other characters closely related to the waitresses, such as family.
Examples:
- Accidental Innuendo: Yumekawa suggests a cat-themed day where the waitresses all wear cat ears, fake tails and collars in an attempt to advertise a cat shelter she regularly volunteers at. Miu, while interested, shoots this down almost immediately on the basis of Stile not being that kind of cafe.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Though still keeping the series' lighthearted slice of life nature, several darker moments are sprinkled throughout the fanfic.
- Adaptational Diversity: Most, if not all of the main cast are LGBTQ+ in some way. Per Word of God, though said jokingly:“It’s my comfort project and I decide that all of Stile is queer.”
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Miu's eye color is changed to green, though interestingly here they're always closed.
- Adaptation Name Change: Here, Dino is given the full name of Romeo Loggia, with Dino being an Affectionate Nickname due to his habit of showing up to work in a different dinosaur jacket each week.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Many relationships are changed here, most prominent is that Maika and Dino's Age-Gap Romance is downgraded into a one-sided puppy crush on Maika's end, with the two forming more of a father/daughter relationship instead.
- Dino and Akizuki are depicted here as longtime college friends.
- Alternate Universe Fic: While still keeping in line with canon, the fic diverges in quite a few different ways.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: While cute in general, Haru turns out to make a very attractive girl when he streams as Milkyu.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Milkyu admits to having idolized Hideri, after the latter came to his defense during one of his streams that got raided.
- Beneath the Mask:
- Underneath all of her genuine enthusiasm, Maika often worries about as being seen as too weird or annoying due to her special interest in foreign culture.
- Despite being reasonably successful where she is, Miu admits to still having some doubts about her doujin abilities.
- Hideri's big ego turns out to be a front to mask her issues, such as her occasional insecurity or bouts of dysphoria-fueled anxiety and depression.
- Haru turns out to be very guarded and shy off air, admitting to feeling less confident when he’s not dressed up.
- Bifauxnen: Yumekawa is very handsome, to the point where the other waitresses think she’s a guy at first.
- Big Brother Instinct: Needless to say, Akizuki is surprised when he starts developing this towards Hideri.
- Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Hidden far underneath Hideri’s desire to be the absolute cutest, is an insecure and anxious individual. In fact, her narcissitic personality started as a "fake it 'til you make it" coping mechanism to deal with her dysphoria-fueled anxiety.
- Boyish Short Hair: When not working, Mafuyu cuts their hair in a tomboyish short style.
- Bumbling Dad: Dino is clumsy, flighty, and often forgetful, but ends up displaying a lot of fatherly instincts towards the waitresses, especially the younger girls like Maika and Kaho.
- Cannot Spit It Out:
- Though she's the first to actually get a grip on her feelings, Kaho becomes increasingly and uncharacteristically awkward in trying to spit out her feelings for Hideri. Not that Hideri is any better about it either.
- Maika has a noticeable crush on Ivy, but is unable to admit so for a variety of reasons.
- Canon Foreigner: The series introduces several original characters into the cast, most notably the three new waitresses: Ivy, Ran, and Yumekawa.
- Continuity Nod: Some events in the original series still play out here, such as the ski trip and first trip to the beach. Two later story characters, Ayato and Milkyu (with the given full name of Haru Hirose) also become part of the cast as well.
- Cosplay Café: Cafe Stile, naturally. This gets taken to its logical extreme when the gang decide to do a cosplay event at the cafe for Halloween, with some of the nerdier staff fully leaning into video game cosplays.
- Country Mouse: Aoki Kanzaki, a quiet, mild-mannered farmer’s son, who fell head over heels for Idol Singer Haruka and happily married her after she retired.
- Closet Key: Being around Kaho eventually results in Hideri realizing that she likes girls... and that she REALLY likes Kaho in particular.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the Stile waitresses are often represented by a color, usually the same as their uniform.
- Maika: Pink
- Kaho: Baby blue
- Mafuyu: Yellow
- Miu: Purple
- Hideri: Turquoise
- Ivy: Orange
- Ran: Navy blue
- Yumekawa: White
- Crossdresser:
- While already handsome enough, Yumekawa dresses more masculine when not working at the cafe, which she attributes to working with animals.
- Haru, better known as his crossdressing streamer persona Milkyu, becomes a regular cafe visitor.
- Deadpan Snarker: Akizuki, the same way he is in canon. Though as time goes on he starts reigning in his tendency for this.
- Deconstruction Fic: Many aspects of the original manga are taken apart and eventually reconstructed here, such as Dino and Maika's Age-Gap Romance. Explanation
- Diagnosis of God: Word of God confirms that both Maika and Hideri are autistic, and passing mentions of this are sometimes sprinkled in chapters. Case in point, Maika has an obvious special interest in foreign culture while there's a minor scene that ends in Hideri giggling and happy stimming. Aww.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Of Surprises and Shocks, once originally intended as an in-universe prequel, was written before Premium Blend which results in a lot of elements that never made it into the latter, one of which being Aoki as an incredibly abusive father.
- Edible Theme Naming: Yumekawa makes a point to name any and all pets she takes in after sweets. Case in point, her three kittens are named Oreo, Matcha, and Creampuff.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Haru Hirose is usually only addressed as his crossdressing/streaming persona, Milkyu.
- Everyone Can See It: Kaho and Hideri are blissfully, painfully oblivious to their feelings towards each other. The others aren't.
- Family Man: Premium Beans introduces Aoki Kanzaki, a gentle farmer’s son who deeply loves his wife and daughter. What’s the first thing Hideri does upon seeing Aoki visit Stilé? She immediately runs to tackle-hug him before the poor man has made one step into the cafe.
- Fan Verse: Of Surprises And Shocks, a diary fic based in Hideri's point of view, takes place in the same universe as Premium Blend and is intended as a sort of prequel fic.
- Foreshadowing: Ivy’s introduction plays out in a largely similar way to Hideri’s. Later on we learn that the two are half-sisters.
- Freudian Slip: Hideri accidentally calls Akizuki “dad” on more than one occasion, a side affect of their Like Brother and Sister status.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot:
- Actually downplayed in the case of Akizuki, with his interest in the Yuri Genre being retconned into young, pre-transition Akizuki mistakenly identifying as a lesbian.
- On a more straight (heh) example, Ran is sometimes a little too eager to provide Miu some “inspiration” for a steamy yuri doujin…
- Glamorous Single Mother: It turns out Ivy’s mother never remarried after splitting from her now deceased abusive husband, and is shown to be carrying on well for herself anyway.
- Idol Singer:
- When she's not playing this role while working at the cafe, Hideri aspires to be one for real. It helps that idols are also her special interest.
- Haruka proves that the apple doesn’t far fall from the tree, being a former idol herself, only retiring late into her idol career after starting a family.
- Innocently Insensitive: After learning that his streamer persona Milkyu helped in spurring Hideri’s transition, Haru’s first action is to ask if she’s medically transitioned yet… i.e., surgery. Though he quickly walks back his statement and apologizes.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Yumekawa absolutely adores cats, to the point of dreaming about Stile becoming a cat cafe. The others are completely nonplussed to hear that Yumekawa fosters kittens and works at the cafe to provide for such.
- Kuudere: Yumekawa takes on this role at the cafe, acting cold and distant towards cafe patrons. Her softspoken voice adds an extra layer of convincing to the act.
- LGBT Awakening:
- Or as Hideri would put it, “the moment her egg cracked”, this moment happening when she took up crossdressing in middle school prior to coming out.
- Maika has one of her own after getting over her one-sided Precocious Crush on Dino, with the realization that she's crushing on Ivy.
- Like Brother and Sister: The normally prickly Akizuki admits to seeing Hideri as "the annoying little sister he never had". Word of God describes their relationship dynamic as the "Dad look, it's the good kush"
Vine. - Magical Girl: Ivy plays this role when working at the cafe, much to Mafuyu's adoration. She even sewed tiny plush wings onto the back of her cafe uniform just to commit to the magical girl bit.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Local Bifauxnen Yumekawa surprisingly ends up befriending the Wholesome Crossdresser Haru, after the two bond over a love of animals. Ivy even ends up calling this out:Ivy: We have the whole set now! A super-cute guy and a handsome lady!
- Mythology Gag: Hideri dealing with cockroaches. Though after the initial incident she sticks to the classic cup trap method of dealing with them (as opposed to throwing them out of windows). But even she refuses to deal with the flying ones, though.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Mafuyu admits this is their favorite part of playing the himedere at Stile, solely because of how stupidly cheesy it is. And then Maika picks it up as a vocal stim.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: All of the waitresses' cafe uniforms are visually distinct in some way. Kaho wears a small tie and blue high-tops with hers, Miu wears black tights instead of the standard cafe kneesocks, Mafuyu's is more of a dress than anything, fitting her Ojou role at the cafe, and so on.
- No-Respect Guy: Played entirely for laughs. The others often jokingly deride Dino as useless due to his clumsiness and occasional procrastination, though it's all in good fun and he takes it in stride.
- Ojou: Mafuyu plays this role at the cafe, instead of the "little sister" role. Maika initially assumes they mean the role of a prim and proper Princess Classic... only to learn that Mafuyu prefers playing the Royal Brat instead.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Several:
- Dino is revealed to be bisexual after Mafuyu scolds him for leaving a rather raunchy BL novel out in the open in the break room, not wanting Maika to stumble upon it.
Mafuyu: We don't need another 'tied-up schoolgirl' incident.- Hideri comes out to her new co-workers as a trans girl almost as soon as she's hired.
- Kaho's moment comes when she and Hideri awkwardly admit their feelings for each other after some encouragement from the rest of the staff.
- Akizuki comes out to Hideri as a trans man after he runs into her on a day off, casually coming out to the Stile employees' group chat a day later.
- And finally, Maika gets her own after she realizes that not only does she like girls, she also likes Ivy in particular.
- Royal Brat: Mafuyu takes on the role of a himedere this time around, a complete 180 from their usual stoicism. Turns out they end up reveling in this and ends up developing a weird fondness (in their words) for Ojou-type characters.
- Sailor Earth: The newly hired Original Character waitresses Ivy, Ran, and Yumekawa.
- Shout-Out:
- “No, Maika. We are not serving the Factory Reset cocktail as a sadistic drink.”
- References to Splatoon crop up quite a lot. Case in point:
- Hideri and Kaho cosplaying as Pearl and Marina for the cafe’s Halloween cosplay event, with the latter considering getting the former hooked on the series her biggest accomplishment.
- During the Halloween cosplay arc, she also comments that Hideri would make a really convincing Marie, something which really sets her off.
- In the days (and chapters) leading up to the cosplay Halloween event, the waitresses discuss possible costume options. Miu posits that Maika would really steal the show if she dressed as either Princess Peach or an incredibly dolled-up version of Mario. Hell, this chapter is even titled “Maika’s Odyssey”.
- In one chapter, the Stile gang ends up discussing their Smash mains and introducing Maika to the game (though this is mostly video games as a whole, it was just Smash specifically that came up).note
- Shrinking Violet:
- Ran plays this role in the cafe, becoming much more shy around customers and even handing their food at arms' length before sprinting off.
- When he’s not streaming as Milkyu, Haru is mousy and introverted off-camera, admitting to not feeling as confident as when he’s dressed up.
- Sick Episode: Volume 5's "Idols Can't Take Sick Days"* . The chapter largely centers around Hideri unsuccessfully attempting to pull off Working Through the Cold, getting drenched in a downpour in the process, and culminating in Kaho deciding to nurse her back to health.
- Skewed Priorities: A chapter during Hideri’s arc touches on an incident during her childhood where she had gotten into her mother’s makeup at four years old. Aoki panics about how Hideri may have eaten the lipstick (and it's implied that she did), while Haruka is relieved that she didn’t get into her expensive, recently bought makeup.
- Sleep Cute: While on a train ride home from work, Hideri falls asleep and ends up resting on Kaho's shoulder. Of course, considering how both girls are blissfully unaware of their feelings for each other, Kaho panics.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Haru’s incredibly cute looks attracted a lot of positive, but ultimately unwarranted attention in elementary and middle school, which only served to make him even shyer.
- Team Dad: Dino ends up taking this role amongst the younger waitresses. This gets Played for Laughs when Maika gifts him a "World's Best Dad" mug.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Wholly Played for Laughs: Kaho succeeds in getting Hideri hooked on Splatoon, but is absolutely (but comically) horrified to learn that she’s taken up maining chargers.
- Token Minority: Ivy, a mixed Afro-Japanese girl, is introduced into the cast of primarily Japanese waitresses.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Kaho has less than feminine hobbies, but still makes sure to some makeup before going out.
- Tsundere: Kaho plays this role while working, the same as she does in canon.
- Twice Shy: While Kaho is incredibly awkward about what she now realizes is a massive crush on Hideri, the latter isn't any better about it either.
- Wholesome Crossdresser:
- Discussed in the case of Hideri, a trans girl who openly mentions how crossdressing was part of her LGBT Awakening.
- Haru is a gender-nonconforming boy, who at first only crossdresses when he’s streaming as his online persona, Milkyu. He slowly grows more confident to dress up more often after some encouragement from the Stile gang.
