a heartbreaking update

Following up on a couple of recent posts on D Light Café and Bakery, home of the capuorange:

I stopped there this morning on my way to work, only to find this:

photo: @PoPville via Twitter

The door was open so I popped in. Anastasia and Vira Derun, the owners, were inside and looked absolutely devastated. They told me someone had set fire to the entrance at 5:00 am. Thankfully no one was hurt.

Here’s hoping the perpetrator is caught. You can help support the Deruns as they build the business back, through their GoFundMe drive.

stepping outside the comfort zone

We went out for brunch this morning to D Light Café and Bakery, a new place we had read about which looked promising. It was indeed a delight (no pun intended), everything was delicious and the owners and their staff couldn’t have been nicer.

This bit in the article caught my eye:

And then there’s the Capuorange, a double shot of espresso mixed with orange juice. “It sounds strange,” admits Vira, who says the unusual wake-up concoction has earned a dedicated following.

Well that’s…. different. Sounded like it could be really interesting, really disgusting, or anywhere in between. The description brought back an unhappy childhood memory of the time I got the brilliant idea that if my orange juice and my bowl of Cheerios each tasted good, they would taste even better together! Spoiler: they did not. At all.

Past experience be damned, I figured I had to find out how this combination tasted.

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Happy National Espresso Day!

photo: The Coffee Compass

November 23 is national espresso day here in the US. Glad tidings to all who celebrate.

If you’re looking to joyfully slug back some of that dark brown nectar today, here are some cafés I highly recommend (basically, all those places that have received The Coveted Asterisk of Quality from my guide):

Ozo Coffee Company, Boulder, CO
Corvus Coffee Roasters, Denver, CO
Crema Coffee House, Denver, CO (Larimer Street)
Huckleberry Roasters, Denver, CO (Dairy Block)
Pablo’s Coffee, Denver, CO (13th & Pennsylvania)

Arethusa a mano, Bantam, CT
Coffee Pedaler, New Haven, CT
J. Rene Coffee Roasters, West Hartford, CT

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Matty’s Pacific Northwest Coffee Adventures: Part Three

Oregon coast, from US 101 north of Florence

see Part 1 and Part 2

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.

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Matty’s Pacific Northwest Coffee Adventures: Part Two

see Part 1 and Part 3

The 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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Matty’s Pacific Northwest Coffee Adventures: Part One

Seattle, as viewed from Elliott Bay

see Part 2 and Part 3

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

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