Dog and Hat Coffee

Subject: Dog and Hat Coffee
Coffee Mugged and Rating [see key]:
- Horsham Coffee Roasters, Rwanda Bwishaza, 5+
- Cafe Mokxa, Boliva Genaro Mamani, 6+

There is nothing like coffee arriving at your door, especially when the coffee made a trans-Atlantic voyage. Recently I had the opportunity to try out Dog and Hat Coffee, a coffee subscription operation catering mainly to folks in the UK and Europe. Not only do they deliver fresh, whole bean coffee from a variety of excellent European roasters each month to their members, but they also offer occasional goodies and special deals from time to time.

Order and Chaos Coffee

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Order and Chaos Coffee
Location: Baltimore, MD
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Over the years, I have had many conversations with friends and colleagues on how they sate their desire for a good cup of coffee at the office. Some bring a thermos; others have a hot water kettle and pour over set-up right at their desk. But very few are as lucky at the folks at Baltimore's Planit Agency, where a superb in-house coffee bar keeps their employees, as well as the surrounding community, on task with excellent beans.

Three Ships Coffee

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Three Ships Coffee
Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

When my sister first moved to Virginia Beach some years ago, I remember having an excruciating time finding a good place to grab coffee between Williamsburg and the ocean. But then around 2015, I came across a young company called Three Ships and ever since, it seems the availability of good coffee in Virginia Beach has been slowly blossoming.

NJ's Great 8 Coffee Roasters

What makes a good coffee shop? Many coffee establishments thrive on selling gigantic coffee milkshakes and sugar-bombed lattes, but if you really analyze it, when the syrups are pushed aside and the whipped cream is blown away, you need good coffee to make such concoctions work. Thus for a local cafe to make great coffee beverages, they need good beans, and to utilize good beans means a shop must either source from a quality coffee roaster or take up the herculean mantle themselves.

American Bulldog Coffee Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: American Bulldog Coffee Roasters
Location visited: Ridgewood, NJ
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Long ago, I found the lovely NJ town of Ridgewood and it seems to only have grown in beauty since. Outfitted with a pleasant downtown, a slightly bucolic train station and good local coffee, I have visited the area more often in these past years than some towns 20 miles from my house. To put it simply, if I had to move to north, Ridgewood would be on my shortlist.

Amity Coffee Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Amity Coffee Roasters
Location: Greenwood, DE
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 4+ [see key]

In my travels, rural northeast towns are some of the hardest spots in which to locate good coffee. I do love driving, but there remains only so much distance I can convince my passengers to detour for a decent cup of coffee. Thankfully, the regional prospects are getting better and fewer trips exists where a good, local shop is completely out of reach.

Evermore Coffee Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Evermore Coffee Roasters
Location: Burlington, NJ
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

The city of Burlington sits a few River Line train stops below Trenton and arguably holds some of the finest architectural charm in the area. It's a town that has a beautiful view of the Delaware River, and even though Burlington has had a share of tough goings through the years with a declining business district, there are signs that the area could be on an uptick.

Adagio Tea

Subject: Adagio Tea
Tea Mugged [pictured above from left to right]:
- Golden Spring

- Ooooh Darjeeling

- Thai Chai

While coffee is my favorite drink, tea is certainly a close second. Especially in the past decade, it seems like the tea options have exploded, with a larger variety of teas becoming more easily available to the tea drinking public, not to mention a higher popularity of tea-based beverages entering the menu at local cafes (think match lattes and london fogs).

Bird in Hand

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Bird in Hand Coffee and Books
Location: Baltimore, MD
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Some of my favorite memories involve drinking coffee while perusing through a bookstore. Though some booksellers sadly refuse to embrace the calling of serving excellent coffee, there have been many establishments that do a wonderful job weaving the written word and the well-roasted bean. One such literary oasis new one to my eyes emerged during a recent trip to Baltimore, when I found that Artifact Coffee and The Ivy Bookshop had created a beautiful space adjacent to Johns Hopkins campus in Charles Village called Bird in Hand.

Ohmies

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Ohmies Coffee Bar + Yoga Studio
Location: Roselle, NJ
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Coffee pairs well with a lot of things in life. Chocolate, cake, long nature walks, mornings, chocolate cake, late nights and fruit are all things I think go well with a quality cup of coffee. Thus why not exercise? Aside from the risks of vigorous movement with a hot beverage, the coupling makes sense, especially since many people have come to accept black coffee as a delicious, healthy drink. Thus when I found a coffee bar and yoga studio in my travels through Roselle, I was surprised that I had not found such a place sooner.

Germantown Espresso Bar

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Germantowan Espresso Bar
Location visited: Philadelphia, PA
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Two decades ago, I would argue that Philadelphia really only had a handful of neighborhoods worth traversing. Now in 2018, there exists so many vibrant parts of Philly and yet, many breathtaking portions of the city are still overlooked or missed by most people. One such area is Germantown, a neighborhood as old as the Revolution (the site of the Battle of Germantown in 1777) and full of charming architecture and beautiful homes. Currently riding a rejuvenating wave of local improvements, there are many reasons to detour out to Germantown to sample the changes.