Peace of Mind Cafe

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Peace of Mind Cafe

22 Jan

Happy New Year! I’m glad to finally be back on the road. The time around the holidays was rather insane this year and I wanted to beat the mega-rush of people being out and about. After all, going to a place with this name whilst in the midst of chaos would be rather unfortunate. It’s funny, but I never really venture up the eastern bank of the Susquehanna river much, even though I live on it. Maybe that’s the reason; just doesn’t feel as exotic perhaps. As well, despite the fact that there used to be a band here called Take 147 that I used to see all the time, I hadn’t actually taken Route 147 north for years. So that’s what I decided to do this time, and visit the awesome little town of Millersburg, PA.

Millersburg is normally home to a yearly Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a restaurant straight out of a Hallmark romance called The Wooden Nickel and absolutely no coffee. That all changed when Peace of Mind Cafe was started up in November of 2019. For a town this picturesque to be without its own coffeehouse was something I always considered a bit of a tragedy and apparently some other people did as well. Some very hippie people. Yes, as you can in by the photos below, someone is clearly seeing the world through technicolor glasses here. From the wisp of steam creating a peace sign in the logo to the amps and guitar still resting on the makeshift stage almost begging someone to allow them to be played, this venue evokes the Haight-Ashbury feeling quite effectively.

The coffee is a locally sourced organic roast, as befits a conscious establishment like this. It was a Colombian Supremo from a brand called Fresh Roasted, out of nearby Sunbury. This was really interesting; I wouldn’t call it a strong flavor, but it was a good one. Talk about a silky mouthfeel! It was almost too airy and light for my taste, as are most Colombian blends, but that impression only lasted until the subtle flavors kicked in on the back-end of the gulp. There was a fruit-flower taste that didn’t manifest unless you happen to swirl the mixture around in your mouth a bit. In the words of Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars, it was so artfully done. It got a positive response from my Mom even, and that’s no small feat. The only person pickier than a food blogger is a food cooker. Probably why we make a good taste testing team! Anyhow, this lovely breakfast blend deserves another swig the next time I’m up this way scouting for local java.

You know, I don’t think we talk enough here about the whole ‘local’ thing and how important it is. Shopping locally isn’t just something you should do to virtue-signal your concern for the world at large. I mean, sure, posing with a photo of yourself helping local farmers is a snappy alternative to having actual empathy if you’re a narcissistic Instagrammer. But the food is also good. Don’t forget that part; the product is simply better, at least in the case of food, when care is taken…and care can’t be taken in an economy of scale. So scale down and source your coffee and concomitant consumables from producers who have a stake in the things they make.

So begins my new task over the next few months of exploring cafes. I’m looking to stick to some of the farm-laden valleys that branch off from the Susquehanna Valley to the east and west. Typically there’s a creek in those valleys and along that creek is typically a town or three of some sort. Coffeehouse culture is being rediscovered and reimagined in some unexpected places. Really, anywhere that there’s a culture of art there’s often a culture of coffee. It’s a common truism among smarty-pantses that correlation is not causality. I do believe that art and coffee are an exception to this, and it isn’t just caffeine in the brainpan driving it. It’s an association between the historically-favored drink of deep thinkers and those who need to know that there are others like them out there. Every town has people like us. The coffeehouse brings us together.

So if you do what I failed to for so long and take good old 147, stop by this cafe for a quick perk-up and hopefully leave with a little more peace of mind.