Archive for August, 2008
Seattle Center's Cafe Beignet
Cafe Beignet at the Seattle Center , originally uploaded by andai. This is the three day Memorial Day weekend. For those of you in Seattle, this means that we have Bumbershoot, the annual three day music and arts festival held at the Seattle Center. Since I don't often come down to the Seattle Center during the year, Bumbershoot give me a great excuse to head on over to Cafe Beignet for a latte and some beignets. Cafe Beignet is actually located in the food court at the Center House and is really a tiny stand that fits only three barista behind the counter. After you've received your order, you can then wander around the Center House and find a place to sit. The 'cafe' uses beans from Bean Collection Company, a Seattle based roasting company. I think their lattes are actually pretty decent, though my wife might disagree with me. The beans have decent flavor and they do make a nice strong latte. What I really like about this place is that even their small i.e. 8 oz size latte order comes as a double. [...]
Your Coffee Options at Bumbershoot
Strange Fruit, originally uploaded by andai. I am spending the weekend at Bumbershoot, the three day music and arts festival held in Seattle at the Seattle Center. This is a great festival to check out various art types of performances especially dance, literary readings, improve, comedy and artwork from local, regional and international artists. There are also some interesting bands, most I never heard of but never the less, you get the chance to check them out. Each night there will be a major headliner who most would recognize. Tonight its Beck, tomorrow, the Stone Temple Pilots and Monday will be Death Cab for Cutie. Whenever you have these kinds of huge festivals and events, there are usually huge crowds of people. Eventually these people get hungry and thirsty and Bumbershoot always has plenty of food and drink options. But with regards to drinks, and more specifically coffee, there are only three main options. The first option is Starbucks. No surprise there being that this is Seattle, the home of [...]
My Bad Online Coffee Experince…
In keeping with my theme on bad coffee shops, today morning I popped into the Online Coffee shop down on 1st Avenue. Since my office is pretty close by, there was a time I use go there almost everyday for my morning latte. Being that I have been checking out some of the other coffeehouses in the area, I have not been there in a while, and so this was my first time in over 6 months to go there for a morning coffee. In the past whenever I went there, the baristas were pretty nice, they were quick to take your order and 'dispense' your coffee, and they made a good strong latte. No matter how big the line was, they were fast and efficient and that's why I used to go there all the time. Convenience was a big factor too, but they did make good coffee. Today's experience was totally different. Right from the start, this was a pretty lame experience compared to my past experiences. I didn't recognize any of the barista... but at least they were pretty friendly too. The problem was that they were slow. I mean they [...]
How to Spot a Bad Coffee Shop
Untitled, originally uploaded by andai. I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a coffee shop, ordered a latte and then quickly realized I just threw away $4.00 including tax, plus tips. Some places simply server awful espresso drinks with great smiles... especially when you tip well. And with the high price of espresso drinks, there is absolutely no reason why I should be frequenting some of these really bad coffee shops and stands out there. Granted, sometimes it will take a bit of time for some of these places to get on their feet, but some I doubt will ever improve. And for these reasons, I have come up with some six tips to help those of you who want good coffee, avoid the not so great coffee shops. If you go into a coffee shop and you find at least three of the following below, then you know might just be in a bad coffee shop... or you really enjoy bad coffee They have more syrupy flavors than Baskin-Robins and Ben & Jerry's combined. Why do you want to adulterate good coffee by adding [...]
Forza Coffee, Good Coffee, Nice Cup Design
Forza Coffee Company, originally uploaded by andai. I stumbled upon Forza Coffee Company a couple of weeks ago in the most unlikely of places Dupont Wa. Dupont is a little town located in about a 15 to 20 minutes drive north of Olympia, Wa and one that you'd not really think to find any coffee shops other than a Starbucks. Funny enough, I don't remember actually seeing an Starbucks stores there. I chatted a bit with one of the baristas who told me a bit out the Forza Coffee Company. She told me that there were a number of Forza Coffee locations all over Washington state. Surprisingly, they do not have a location in Seattle... at least not yet. It is also my understanding that a number of these locations are franchise stores. I don't know how I feel about that... but then I don't own the stores so who cares what I think anyway... She also told me that they get their beans from Dillanos Coffee Roasters and the beans are actually a roast that is made specially for Forza. One quick note about Dillanos. I [...]
Victoria BC Coffee Scene Poised for Greatness
Union Pacific Coffee Company Sign, originally uploaded by andai. Keep in mind when you read this, I was only able to sample a very small number of the coffeehouses and cafes in and around the Victoria BC area. I was only there for about two and a half days and that is really not much time to properly check out all the coffee places that Victoria offers. So take this post with a grain of salt and feel free to suggest places I should try out next time I am back in Victoria. The first thing I noticed when driving/walking around Victoria BC is that the locals really do like their coffee. It seems like just about everywhere you look, there are folks walking along with their espresso drinks on hand or just lounging in some of the plentiful coffee shops you find all over the place… Some of these include the usual suspects in Canada, i.e. Starbucks, Tim Hortons and Blenz Coffee, but there were also tons of smaller independent coffee shops and cafes to try. Now I tend to stay away from the big boys and try to [...]
Faith in Dilettante's Hot Chocolate Restored
Dilettante's, originally uploaded by andai. A couple of months back, I was doing quite a bit of business related traveling and flying from Sea-Tac Airport. And because my flights were early Monday morning flights, the first thing I would do once I got through airport security was to head on over to the Dillettante Mocha Cafe or more accurately, their beverage stand for a cup of their 'famous' hot chocolate. What? No lattes? Once you go through security, the latte choices are extremely limited. There's Starbucks, Kathy Casy's Dish D'lish and then there is Dilettante. I'm not big on Starbucks and I'm not quite feeling Dish D'lish yet. As such, that leaves me with Dilettante. Since they are famous for chocolate, then the natural thing to do is check out their hot chocolate drinks. To be honest, I thought their hot chocolate were decent, but really nothing much to carry on about and so I has sort of kept them in the back of my mind for one of those times when I absolutely have to have hot chocolate and [...]
The Great Afternoon Tea Tradition
White Heather Tea Room Cup, originally uploaded by andai. I grew up reading lots of British literature. Some of my all time favorite authors for books aimed at children and young teenagers include Enid Blyton, Frank Richards (i.e Charles Hamilton) and C.S. Lewis. I also read a lot of the British comics like Beano, Dandy, Topper, Cor!!, Whoopie etc. When you read all sort of British literature, one thing you do get to realize really quick is the British do love their tea, or more precisely, their afternoon tea. British literature has always had lots of references to the afternoon tea tradition, going into details describing all the various treats and goodies being eaten by the characters of the book or comic. But growing up in Kenya, though we do drink a lot of tea and we do have the tea and 'biscuits' tradition, we don't really have a proper afternoon tea tradition. This is something that I had always wanted to try out. Yet, it just so happens that for those of you who live in the Seattle or the Pacific [...]
The Monkey Grind Espresso Bar
The Monkey Grind Espresso Bar Sign, originally uploaded by andai. I was down in the Greenwood area to visit a friend some months ago when I noticed the Monkey Grind Espresso Bar sign. This shop and sign is located right on North 85th Street. On seeing this sign, my first thoughts were, "now there's a really awesome sign... I have to try their coffee". Alas, the shop was closed. This was on a Sunday late afternoon about 6:00 PM or so. Now it just so happened that last weekend, I was close enough to take a detour and drop in for a cuppa... so I did. I enjoyed chatting with the barista as she told me a little about the place. Now right off the bat, I must say there are some things that I do like about the Monkey Grind Espresso & Bar Really cool logo - one of the best logos I have seen - actually this is what attracted me to the store Great barista - very friendly and fun to chat with Small, cosy with great ambience and nice coffeehouse feel to it. I was there in the late morning so I don't know what the [...]
Caffè Artigiano Coffee House
Caffe Artigiano Coffee House, originally uploaded by andai. I first visited one of the Caffè Artigiano shops a couple of years back on one of my previous visits to Vanvouver BC. I had passed by the one on Hornby Street, just off of Robson a couple of times and I really liked the interior decor so I made it a point to drop in. At that time I was simply enjoying good coffee so I wasn't making a point of finding out anything about the beans used etc. I also don't remember too much about their coffee except that I remember that I really enjoyed drinking it and taking pictures in the shop. I also went back to the store at least one more time during my short visit at that time. And the only reason that I didn't go back to Artigiano this last time I visited was the fact that I wanted to check out some new shops and also revisit Sciue but I have placed Artigiano on the revisit list for sure. Finally, I don't know how many stores they had at that time when I visited, but it seemed this last time around that [...]