The current lack of blog activity has been due mainly to being laid up for the past two and a half week after surgery on my big toe. So I’m using crutches when not riding this bad boy,
but at least for the time being I’m able to avail of accessible parking and seating, like at this past weekend’s New Zealand – USA rugby match:
Made a quick trip back to the Pacific Northwest to drop my son off at college. Some coffee stuff and some non-coffee stuff to report.
After Portland we headed down to Eugene, so my son could attend first year orientation at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks). We had a nice time here as well, getting to know the town, staying at a nice cottage. However, we may have chosen the wrong places, but frankly the food and coffee were underwhelming.
Continue readingThe second leg of the trip was in Portland, Oregon. The city is still scarred from a year of political violence, and there was a sense of uncertainty of when or if some kind of normal will return, and what it will look like. But the attractions of the Rose City are still clear.
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Just back from a family vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Of course I drank a lot of coffee. As when I did my coffee tour of Denver three years ago, I ordered a traditional macchiato at each stop rather than my usual quad shot version. This kept my body in check on those days when I had three or four coffees. So let’s get to it!
First Stop: Seattle
Continue readingOne man’s opinion. Ask me tomorrow and I’m likely to tell you something completely different.
Roasters
1. Onyx
2. Heart
3. Verve
4. Sweet Bloom
5. Counter Culture
DMV Cafés
1. Café Unido
2. The Coffee Bar (Shaw)
3. Baked & Wired
4. Dua Coffee DC
5. Northside Social (Arlington)
HM (alphabetically): Kaldi Social House (Silver Spring), Lost Sock, Maketto, Swings (Alexandria), Takoma Bev Co, Vigilante (Hyattsville)
If you’re headed to Stowe, Vermont, about halfway there from the highway, after you’ve passed Ben & Jerry’s and then this guy…..
….. you’ll see what at first glance looks to be a big red barn. You’re going to want to stop there, because it’s the home of one of the best specialty coffee places you’ll find just about anywhere.
Welcome to Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea, home to a large roastery, coffee school, and coffee and tea bar.
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You may have read in the news of President Joe Biden’s visit on Cinco de Mayo to Las Gemelas, a taqueria in Washington, DC’s La Cosecha market. It’s too bad he didn’t go to the other end of La Cosecha, where he would have found one of DC’s finest coffee purveyors.
La Cosecha is a beautiful, high-end marketplace in the Union Market district, featuring merchants selling food, wine, apparel and household goods, all to showcase the diaspora of Latin American cultures. There you’ll find Café Unido, a stand in the market selling Panamanian coffees, with airy indoor and outdoor seating areas.
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The DC area’s Fox affiliate is doing a series on its morning news show this week on coffee. Started today at Vigilante Coffee, one of my favorite local roasters. Nice overview of the roasting process. Check out the video here.
It should be pretty obvious that I love good coffee. I also love donuts. I’m certainly not the only one to feel this way, and definitely not the only one to love them together. Sweets balancing out a great cup of coffee is always a treat, and for whatever reason the soft and chewy mix of yeasty dough and a million tons of sugar makes for the best complement.
I thought about this when I found myself standing in a block-long line the other morning for 45 minutes in 350 F weather. I was there to buy donuts.
