Mugged: Driftaway Coffee

Subject: Driftaway Coffee
Coffee Mugged and Rating [see key]:

- Profile 1 (Fruity): Rwanda Gitesi 6+

- Profile 2 (Classic): Brazil Fazenda do Serrado 4+
- Profile 3 ( Balanced): Nicaragua Las Nubes Co-op 5+

- Profile 4 (Bold): Honduras San Vicente 4+

It's no secret that there are different types of coffee drinkers. Some like the beautiful nuance and vibrant flavors of a lightly roasted African coffee, brimming with fruit and luscious chocolate. Others like their coffee a bit stiffer and thicker, a brew with a mellow sweetness and smatterings of different flavors. And then there's some folks who like their coffee to bathe their tongue in bitterness and smoke, favoring the dark roasts bearing European country names. 

United By Blue

Subject: United By Blue
Location: Philadelphia, PA
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Early autumn mornings around a youth group campfire taught me the necessity of good coffee amidst outdoor excursions. While some nights yield a perfect nights sleep under the starry sky, others are met with surprises (such as bears or torrential rain) that cause for a less fulfilling slumber. When you wake up cold, wet and/or exhausted from bear hide-and-seek, who wants to face the upcoming day with a cup of sludge? No one.

Coffeehouse-Five

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Coffeehouse-Five
Location: Portland, OR
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Saturday mornings are the best time to get out and experience a city. It's one of the few windows in the week where many businesses are open, yet the crowds are mostly sleeping off their prior late-night adventures. Especially if I'm traveling, I can usually get in a full four hours before the streets get crowded with the brunch hordes.

Viora Lid

As I have learned in the past years, there are legions of coffee lids out there for your paper cups. Back in my early coffee days where I cared more for the caffeine than the flavor, I recall life with the crummy fold-the-lip-back flat lids that more often than not proved one tear away from an epic spill. Then when I began frequenting quality establishments, I graduated somewhat exclusively to the Solo Traveler, a fine top that offered more drink stability, though it took some time to master little things like not positioning the spout at the cup seam, and how to use your tongue tip to control flow.

Mugged: Coffee Boys

Subject: Coffee Boys
Coffee Mugged: Not Actually Sure
Rating [see key]: 4+

There are a ton of coffee delivery services out there these days, and it's harder and harder for new cats to distinguish themselves from the pride. Some companies market themselves as having an extensive variety of roasters and beans new each month, while others trumpet their staunch consistency to the same beans forever. A handful of folks focus solely on gorgeous, effective branding; some champion the coffee quality above all; and a precious few do both well. In general, no matter the approach it seems that whatever your style, there's a coffee subscription for you.

Vespr

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Vespr
Location: Orlando, FL
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

It seems like every time I visit Orlando, the coffee scene gets better and better. My latest trip south took me to a shop in East Orlando that had quickly accrued a reputation for great coffee, a decently-sized establishment called Vespr.

Ristretto Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Ristretto Roasters
Location: Portland [Couch St]
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

I love visiting coffeehouses at night. There's a certain charm to most establishments that one does not capture in the waking hours when people are starting the buzzings of a busy day. Come late-afternoon, most places tend to thin out and cool down a little, owing to the fact that many folks will have switched to alcoholic aspirations and that numerous others simply hang up their caffeine habit post-afternoon coffee break. With few exceptions, the vibe of a coffeehouse around supper time rarely matches the feel of the AM rush.

Cold Bruer

Iced coffee is all the rage right now, specifically cold brew. While it was pushed from the sun for some years due to the influx of quicker (and many would still argue better) brew methods such as the Japanese style (Counter Culture has a nice tutorial) or similarly, the Aeropress over ice (CoffeeGeek advises here), it seems cold brew has vaulted back into the limelight due to a host of factors. And regardless the reasons for its rise back to power, cold brew coffee can be found on the shelves of supermarkets and minds of more people than ever.

Mugged: Colombia Luminosa [Peet's]

Subject: Peet's Coffee and Tea
Coffee Mugged: Colombia Luminosa
Rating [see key]: 3+

While Peet's has long preferred to roast darker, they now are beginning to wander into the realms of light roasts. With the recent release of their Colombia Luminosa, their sole light roast, they're diversifying their offerings to a growing love of lighter roasts. While at first glance, the beans do not really look like a light roast (definitely more medium), the beans are indeed a good deal lighter than some of Peet's more regular offerings.

Cartel Coffee Lab

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Cartel Coffee Lab
Location: Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Terminal 4
WiFi?: No
Rating: 5+ [see key]

If I've said it once, I'll say it ten trillion times: every major airport should have a solid coffee presence. Some cities get it, awarding space to high-quality coffee establishments able to provide weary and gastro-curious travelers with a delicious cup of coffee. Other cities, like my home airport of PHL, don't seem to see the opportunity to make their coffee options memorable and delicious, but are more content to settle upon tired and typical outlets.

Either/Or

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Either/Or
Location: Portland, OR
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

One of Portland's many charms is its numerous, extremely-livable neighborhoods. While cities further east often have tight city lanes where space and parking are at a significant premium, in a place like Portland many neighborhoods offer the peace and parking of suburbs with the proximity of city life. 

Mugged: Beachcomber Coffee Co

Subject: Beachcomber Coffee Co
Coffee Mugged: self-titled
Rating [see key]: 3+

While I've only been to Vancouver, BC once, it remains one of my favorite Canadian cities. The climate was pleasant, the people friendly and the coffee abundantly delicious. Thus, it nearly always pulls my interest to hear of new coffee coming from the Canadian west.

Tamp and Tap

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Tamp and Tap
Location: Memphis, TN
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 5+ [see key]

One of my first major road trips back when I was first in college was a whirlwind 32-hour road trip to and from Memphis. Two friends and I decided one weekend we wanted to visit some other friends going to school down yonder, so we alternated shifts and arrived lickety-split to spend one day roaming Memphis, only to turn around and head back to Philadelphia the next morning. Ironically, not having learned from the first trip, we did practically the same trip a year later, spending only one day at our west Tennessee destination.

Peddler Coffee

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Peddler Coffee
Location: Philadelphia, PA
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

For as long as I've been drinking coffee, I've been a firm believer in imbibing while learning. Clearly any academic or scholarly venue becomes better ten fold with a cup of good coffee in hand. This applied firmly to classes in college, small group Bible discussion, all-night cramming and by far the most pleasant, museum visits. Especially with Philadelphia institutions, I would always make an out-of-the-way stop for some great coffee before wandering the Academy of Natural Sciences or the Franklin Institute.

Fill in the Coffee Map - Next Leg

With the great response to the last Fill in the Coffee Map leg, the series is making its second go. We'll be heading out to new places and giving quality coffee establishments lots of limelight, adding bright, shiny pins to the coffee map.

Arbor Lodge

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: The Arbor Lodge
Location: Portland, OR
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Not every city neighborhood has a name that also works perfectly as a coffeehouse name. But Arbor Lodge, Portland is such a neighborhood with such a coffeehouse.

Mugged: The Coffee Dispatch

Coffee Subscription Service: The Coffee Dispatch
Roasters / Coffees / Rating [see key]:
- Messenger Coffee Co: Papua New Guinea Waghi Valley 5+
- Thou Mayest: Ethiopia Kochere 5+
- Broadway Roasting Co: Ethiopia Sidamo 5+
- City Market Coffee Roasters: A Brewed Awakening 4+
- Parisi Coffee - omitted (see below)
- The Roasterie - omitted (see below)

Kansas City is the one Missourian city I have not had a chance to tour. Due to family and Missouri's central location, I've been to the other major metropolitan centers of the Show Me State, some of them multiple times. Yet even though I've flown into Kansas City, I still anticipate the day when I can roam her streets and sample her wares firsthand.

The Mud House

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: The Mud House
Location: St. Louis, MO
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

Every neighborhood should aspire to have a great eatery that issues forth great food and tremendous coffee. So often the equation is split (at best) in most towns, with a great coffeehouse offering a decent bagel and soup menu, while down the street you have a restaurant churning wondrous culinary feats paired with lackluster coffee. Yet in the few instances when you put a talented chef and a skilled barista together (even in the same person), you get a force akin to collecting all of the dragon balls.

Hebrews Coffee

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Hebrews Coffee
Location: Springfield, MO
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

I am a tremendous fan of the noble pun. What better to insert into a conversation than a clever exploitation of different uses of similar sounding words? I trace my fervent love of witty word play to my days in Montana when I studied under a man who greatly regarded them as the highest form of communication. Forever my eyes have been o-punned.

Mugged: Peru La Convencion [Caffe Vita]

Subject: Caffe Vita
Coffee Mugged: Peru La Convencion
Rating [see key]: 4+

For a brief time in my life, I lived walking distance from a good coffeehouse called Rockford Coffee. Ironically it was also the poorest time in my life, so regular visits were not as regular as I would have liked, but when I could justify it, this coffeehouse was a pleasant haven for quality coffee and enjoying some downtime. Rockford was also my first exposure to Caffe Vita, and in the almost ten years since I first sipped a Vita coffee, I've always had my eye on company developments such as new locations (in 5 cities now) as well as their ever-evolving list of coffees.

Modcup Coffee Co

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Modcup Coffee Co
Location: Jersey City, NJ
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

If you've ever sought a beautiful vista of the Manhattan skyline, Jersey City Heights is the place to get it. And while many a bustling NYC tourist won't go out of their way just for a photo opportunity, now one can completely legitimize the stop since Modcup Coffee sits nearly a stones throw from the edge of the palisade.

Coava Coffee Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Coava Coffee Roasters
Location: Portland, OR [Grand Ave location]
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]


While Portland has tons of coffee establishments worthy of a visit, there are a few that have come to embody the city's coffee scene, not only for the quality coffee but also due to the beauty of their abode. Coava Coffee Roasters is one of those spots.

Crema Coffee Roasters

Part of the Fill in the Coffee Map Series

Subject: Crema Coffee Roasters
Location: Nashville, TN
WiFi?: Yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]

One thing I really love to find in a coffeehouse is a feeling of camaraderie. A simple atmosphere of common bonds and good vibrations really makes the difference. Whether it exists as tight bonds between staff, customers or simply everyone who walks in, it is that unified harmony that makes the experience better ten fold.

Mugged: Kenya Kiruga [Evocation]

Subject: Evocation Coffee Roasters
Coffee Mugged: Kenya Kiruga via My Coffee Pub
Rating [see key]: 6+

In my visits to Texas, I've only traversed the panhandle once, and that expedition was but a quick drive that only allowed for a single gas stop prior to Amarillo. I remember the spot well, right off the highway at a gas station without prices. Seeing that I was running on fumes, I didn't care to risk looking for a second option, so I pulled in and counted my cash to make sure I had enough to pay for a little more than usual. The lady did ending up charging me (what I thought was) too much, but since I was in a hurry and in little position to argue, I paid, hopped back in my car and raced on through Amarillo into New Mexico.

Does Disney World Have Good Coffee?

Some years ago, in my haughty college days of grand enlightenment, I remember making the statement that Disney World was a lazy man's repeat vacation. Sure I saw the sense in getting there once, mainly to experience the magic firsthand and see what the hullabaloo is about. But after maybe a return visit a decade later, why burn your precious vacation dollars going to the same place over and over like so many people do?