As I mentioned in my recent holiday gift guide, there’s a nascent market for single serving convenience formats in quality coffee. In addition to instant coffee and teabag-like steeped coffee, there are some inventive, self-contained mini pourover products on the market. My buddy Rob travels to Ethiopia frequently on business, and he recently brought me back a local example of the latter to try.
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Ah, that time of year has come yet again. Kindly consider this an update to my holiday gift guide from 2018; all the items there are still recommended. I’ll try to add a few more suggestions, including add-ons to last year, to help you delight the coffee nerd in your life. Just a disclaimer, I’m not getting any kind of click-through payments or other compensation from anyone on these; just my own opinions, for whatever they are or are not worth.
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Hope you all enjoy some great coffee today and treat your baristas kindly.
I went this morning to what was billed as a national coffee day event featuring Counter Culture coffee at a high end mall’s food hall (looked like a food court to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). The coffee shop in the food court hall partners with Counter Culture. It was actually a small table with a serving carafe to sample the Big Trouble blend, but well worth the trip because I met the delightful Lenora of Counter Culture’s DC training center. We had a great chat about all kinds of espresso nerdery. Very glad I went.
Now I’m off to see my friends at Northside Social, as I’d feel remiss not visiting on this day.
One of my favorite coffee places is Maglianero, in Burlington, VT, as I’ve discussed before. I manage to get there a couple weeks a year, and it feels special to me. So imagine my response to see this yesterday on the Instagram:
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top five preferred coffee roasters, ranked (ask me tomorrow and this list might be completely different)
Continuing my one-man campaign for better awareness, appreciation and treatment of baristas…..
Please read this article from Sprudge, about the efforts of two Counter Culture educators to get data on a living wage for baristas.
Continue readingthis is the original 2018 version; also see my 2019 holiday gift guide
You can do better than a Starbucks gift card.
Here are a few suggestions for showing a little holiday love to the coffee drinker in your life. Prices are as of this date and, like much in life, subject to change. Shop around for best deals.
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Editor’s Note: Today I visited Randi Milton, General Manager of Northside Social in Arlington, VA, before the morning rush kicked in to get the view from the other side of the machine. Anyone who has looked at this blog knows that Northside is my go-to for great drinks, great food and great service (here’s my earlier review). I’m very grateful to Randi for her time, hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.
This morning I returned to the Counter Culture training center in DC. It was time to learn how to make a better espresso, and (hopefully) how to make some latte art. Not to mention the attraction of getting on a La Marzocco machine I could never hope to own.
On a bucolic commercial block in the DC suburbs which just screams small-town American goodness, you’ll find Takoma Beverage Company, otherwise known as Takoma Bev Co. This shop has quickly become a mainstay of Takoma Park, MD, a progressive, funky town hard by the DC line.