It’s finally happening: The segment I teased long ago is coming to fruition. The Coffeehouse Journey is finally headed into the Pennsylvania Wilds region. As I’m writing this, it’s been nearly two weeks after the trip to experience the PA Wilds coffee scene. A lot of preparation went into it, but, this brief series will only scratch the surface of what the region offers. There were multiple towns I wanted to visit but won’t have a chance to, at least not in this series. There will undoubtedly be another at some point in the future. Another series of Into the Wilds, that is.

As it stands, summer concert season is approaching too rapidly to take in the entire Wilds region before I embark upon different paths. In the name of consistency, I picked a small and varied selection of coffeehouses located in representative urban and rural areas of the Wilds. Yes, there is a metropolitan region in the Wilds, and we will get to that later. We’re starting, though, with the small town of Allenwood. That’s because, if you’re traveling north from Harrisburg, this town marks the precise border between the Wilds region (beginning in southern Lycoming County) and the Susquehanna River Valleys region (starting in northern Union County).

Allenwood makes an excellent border town between the two geographical and cultural regions. In most ways, it’s a typical rural Pennsylvania town. Blink, and you missed it. There is no ‘downtown’ to speak of. No, I should say, the downtown consists of a single church, gas station, and restaurant. That’s normal for small Pennsylvania towns, especially in this area. They don’t need more than this, and these towns are a product of their needs. Agriculture isn’t a hobby here, as I’ve said before. The logic of the farming world drives the infrastructure options. This town just happens to have a cool coffeehouse in addition to the norms.

We’ve visited a Wagging Tail location before this. There are several of those. The one we looked at previously was in Watsontown to the south of the Wilds. That was the flagship location. This is a drive-thru version. It doesn’t look like a drive-thru. Apparently, that’s a popular format for coffeehouses in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s catching on in Pennsylvania. With the amount of vehicles crossing the Susquehanna River valleys, it only makes sense to adopt that expression of coffee culture.

Interestingly, it has little impact on the aesthetic or feel of the location as a proper ‘coffeehouse.’ It still looks like one. There are still tables and chairs, albeit outside the cramped brewing and serving station. It felt almost like the building was attempting to be a traditional ‘coffeehouse’ despite its being a quick-serve establishment. There were even pastry treats, but it never felt like fast food. Somehow, coffeehouses seem to extrude the quality of ‘the coffeehouse’ into whatever space they occupy. That’s an idea worth exploring more in the coming weeks.

The coffee I was given was in Americano form. If I didn’t want to get something fancy, espresso was all they had on hand. I’m not surprised; this location must go through an incredible amount of inventory. Route 15 North runs through town. That road is the only (major) road north. Back to the coffee: It was Wagging Tail’s proprietary roast (they are a roaster). I wanted their house blend, but this one substituted finely. There was a mellow nuttiness to calm down the frenetic ‘roasty’ quality and bitter astringency characterizing espresso generally. Granted, a nut or chocolate flavor constitutes the base flavor palette of espresso. I did catch some of the stone fruit taste oft beloved by espresso lovers. All told it was a nice little roast.

Here’s how we’ll do this. Next week, I’ll detail my adventures in the upcoming location we visited in this ‘Northern’ portion of the whirlwind tour. A few weeks later, I’ll have completed the ‘Western’ segment and will cover that in detail. It has to be broken up because there was just too much to see and do for a single post. Like the coffee in my gullet, these words and deeds need time to be digested. Until next time, stay caffeinated.

the town…

the place…

the beans…

the industry…