No Foam Please
All Things CoffeeReal Simple Boasts about 7 Coffees
Looking for something to change up your coffee routine?
Real Simple (the magazine) boasts about “7 Buzz-Worthy Coffees” – giving some recommendations for coffees you can try to change up your coffee routine…
- Pete’s Coffee Uzuri African Blend
- Counter Culture La Golondrina
- Starbucks Pike Place Roast – I have to admit to liking this one myself. But when I buy beans for regular coffee rather than espresso I like to find something different to buy.
- Jim’s Organic Sweet Love Blend
- Stumptown Coffee Roasters Kenya Gaturiri Reserve – molasses and black currant? count me in.
- illy Whole Bean Coffee Medium Roast – All of the illy coffees are fantastic in my opinion. There is nothing quite like the smell when you crack open a tin of illy coffee. Now, for some reason Real Simple says that you can only get it in “ground” rather than whole bean, but the picture says “whole bean” and I’ve never had trouble finding illy whole bean coffee…
- Gimme! Coffee Rwanda Remera
So, if you’ve been stuck in a rut with your daily coffee routine, try one of these to change up the routine… But I’ll add a couple more ideas to the list:
Ruta Maya - a fantastic organic coffee from right here in Austin. The Cubita (black package) has a great aroma. They’ve been in business in Austin for years, importing from Central America. And then there’s Third Coast Coffee, another good local roaster. Or Kohana Coffee (love their website, haven’t tried the coffee yet!)….
Do you have to move to Austin to find these? Of course not! No doubt there is a small roaster in your town (or two, or three, or ten) to try out. If there’s an organic grocery store (Whole Foods, Sprout, etc) or a Costco, those are good places to start looking for alternatives that might be local (at least, they are good places to look for options in Austin, along with HEB and Central Market).
Happy hunting…
Jo’s Coffee
Jo's Coffee on South Congress
Jo’s Coffee, in Austin, TX, is a bit of an institution. It has quite a following at its two locations (which, by the way, have a very different vibe). The one on Second Street feels a bit more upscale, but not still casual enough for the average pedestrian in shorts and flip flops.
The Jo’s on South Congress is basically a shack with open air seating. Jo’s sells beer as well as coffee, and the outdoor seating seems to be very popular with folks who want to have a beer and a smoke, even more than the folks who just want coffee. My latte was good, and so was the Mocha Latte. But the ambiance of the place was left wanting, and I retreated to the Hotel San Jose courtyard to read the newspaper without any smoke blowing my way. Jo’s has free wifi as well, but I didn’t get a chance to test it out.
I think the best thing recommending both Jo’s coffee locations is that they’re located near a lot of interesting stores you can walk to – and if you’re like me, you need caffeine to shop. South Congress, and 2nd Street, are two of the more interesting outdoor shopping streets in Austin (with South Congress being a bit more “hip” and 2nd Street a bit more “upscale”), and both have a collection of really yummy restaurants to complement the coffee shops.
Yelp reviews here…
Blue Bottle Coffee Co. delivers the goods
Blue Bottle Coffee co. is a micro-roaster of organic coffee, with just a few cafes in San Francisco (4 or 5). A colleague recommended I try it out sometime when they saw how often I was heading to the Starbucks on the first floor of the building we were working in…
Historic Light Rail, before everyone boarded
The first time I tried it I was taking the light rail to work and just stopped early at the Ferry Building.
The Blue Bottle Coffee Co. In the Ferry Building
But it had been a few weeks since I last made it to Blue Bottle, and I had previously failed to get a picture of the fantastic coffee they serve. I resolved to return early one morning before work…
So I woke up to a nice sunrise…
Sunrise in San Francisco
And walked a couple of extra blocks to the Ferry Building to return to the scene of the crime. The first time I went, I ordered their fairly well-regarded hand-drip coffee. They make each cup of drip coffee individually, and many coffee fans rave about it. But I’m used to drinking espresso or lattes and mochas, and the drip coffee is still too acidic to my taste. When I returned, I tried the latte- which I found to be excellent, and this last time I ordered a mocha.
They sell all kinds of coffee paraphernalia at the Blue Bottle Coffee Co. Siphons and French Presses and other exotic tools of the trade.
coffee siphon anyone?
One of the redeeming qualities is the location: the Ferry building is just unique. It has a great feel, and when you step inside, it feels like you’ve stepped into an alternate world of anti-marketing – for none of the specialty stores inside have a shingle hanging outside the Ferry building itself. You have to step inside to find out what’s there. And maybe that counter-intuitive branding is part of the charm. There’s no logo on the cup, just good coffee.
Don’t believe me? check out the yelp reviews.
Oh, and what about the coffee? Check out the pictures, they definitely have good foam-art skills.
mocha latte
closeup of mocha latte
Ristorante Umbria finishes with espresso
Today I had dinner at Ristorante Umbria, an Italian restaurant in SOMA (South of Market) San Francisco. I got the last open table in the restaurant and it has a cozy, conversational feel when it is crowded. After dinner I thought I’d test their latte/mocha credentials, rather than dessert.
Ristorante Umbria's Mocha Latte
It was served more like a cappuccino, in a short, wide cup, with a mountain of frothy foam on top (um, see the title of the blog… no foam please…). Of course my main complaint about serving it this way is you had best drink it quickly or it goes cold.
But, on the taste front, Umbria passes with flying colors.
Texspresso
Since the early 90′s (at least 1995), Texspresso has been serving up their own take on espresso drinks, and they’ve clearly spent more time on the drinks than on the web site or the atmosphere in their Austin location (they have a newer location in Buda I haven’t been to).
The Texspresso Alamocha
They’re located in the North Village Shopping Center in Austin, which is undergoing major renovations. I hear that renovations are coming to the interior of Texspresso soon as well, but for now it has the acoustics of a gymnasium with 20′ ceilings and nothing to break up the sound.
I hadn’t been to Texspresso in 10 years, and I’ve become much more of a coffee fan since the last visit, so I thought I’d try it again… this time the barista recommended that I try the Texspresso or the Alamocha (extra points for clever use of “Alamo”), and so I did. They somehow brew the sugar in instead of stirring it in later, and what they serve is rich and creamy. I went back the next day and had another.
Espresso, Let me Count the Ways
I’ll be blogging about espresso and coffee here. Especially when I travel and get a chance to try out someplace “different”, or when other people put me in touch with a unique coffee shop local to their city.
When I can I’ll post photos or link to them. The iPhone comes in handy for that.
