Author Archives: coffeehouseguy80

Hello readers! Those of you who frequent this site probably noticed my long absence. The especially astute will notice that it coincided with the holiday season.  Yes I know I do this every year, and apologize for my vanishing act every year. Like it probably has been for many of you, this past season has been a doozy. Got a new vehicle and a new TV. December was spent traveling around visiting family, helping take decorations up and down, and having dinner after heaping dinner. January has been spent in busy season at my job, dodging the cold weather whenever possible, and watching the sunlight return one extra minute of daylight at a time. Wherefore art thou, equinox?

I simply haven’t had time to visit any coffee houses. The good news is, this year the coffee houses came to me! My Mom bought me a lot of new gourmet coffee for Christmas (somehow she guessed that I enjoy such things), and I’m going to showcase a few of those new finds here in lieu of new coffee spots. In fact I have several places that I want to visit in the near future, one of them in Baltimore, so stay tuned. Plus, I’m revamping the site with an all-new system for grading the overall “coffeehouse experience.” Until then, enjoy a few tastes of what I got for Christmas!

The one right below is from Gold Box Roastery (obviously) based in the city of Newcastle in the UK.  My first impression was that it makes a good afternoon or lunch blend. It’s made from Arabica beans sourced from Dubai. It has a very refined flavor, but not quite as good as the bouquet which is really spectacular and nice to smell in the kitchen! That being said, all of the specialty coffees from this roaster receive over 80 points (in cupping), so this is high quality stuff. I would say that, flavorwise, it exemplifies the Arabica bean in its floral and nutty overtones.

Now this coffee was fun. It’s the brand created by Joey Kramer of Aerosmith for some reason. This is definitely more of a breakfast blend, having a more “bright” and acidy quality. It’s a medium roast, but treat it as a light roast.

I saved the best for last. This is an offering from Green Mountain Coffee in Vermont. It’s a venerable name and easily recognizable to anyone who really gets into the coffee world. It’s a fair trade organic blend, and they don’t say what it’s blended from. From the earthiness of the overall package I’d guess somewhere in South America. It’s a more typical (and I would say better quality) blend than the previous coffee (sorry Aerosmith), but I’ve always favored heavier, less acidic mixtures. Have this with cookies or with dinner if you don’t mind a late night.

An unexpected pleasure, right in my own backyard. The most fascinating thing about this cafe is that I had never heard of it, despite living less than two miles from it. Granted, it is in an out-of-the-way location; a small plaza on Colonial Road. But the originality of this enterprise is so unique that it really deserves to be more well known. The theme of the cafe is the culture and coffee of the African country of Ethiopia. For those who don’t know, Ethiopia is a mid-sized nation on the eastern coast of the African continent, known in popular media for deep poverty…but known to scholars for its deep history.

The coffee of Cafe D’Afric is exclusively Ethiopian; the woman at the counter who took my order co-owns it, and she told me her husband (the other owner) travels regularly to D.C. in search of new Ethiopian coffees to bring back to the coffee shop. They also serve a wide range of Ethiopian foods, with their menu available online. It should be noted that this transformation into a restaurant only occurs on Saturday afternoons and evenings. In addition, as you can see in the photos below, the entire cafe is set up as a celebration of Ethiopian culture beyond cuisine and coffee. Traditional Ethiopian garb is available for purchase, and lovely artworks cover the walls.

All of their coffee is of the Arabica bean, so that’s what I got. Arabica in general has a high acidity, creating that “winey” taste that almost smacks of tannin. They are also sweet and soft in general, with fruity hints. This was, then, an archetypal Arabica. I was hit with that acidic tang right off the bat, something I usually don’t favor, but the aftertaste was really nice, having that characteristic flavor reminiscent of a kind of tart berry. Maybe it was my imagination; the point is that if you like sweet breakfast-style coffees, this is a really great place to catch a bit of caffeine and a bit of culture!

The inside…

Outfits from Africa…

Artwork…

More artwork…

And this is my apology….a special post about a locally available coffee that I just found and enjoyed. Actually my Mom found this fun new Arabica and delivered it to me, knowing that I always look for interesting new brands. Yeah, I’m spoiled. Only-child syndrome.

new coffee.

For those who don’t know, International Coffee Day is on October 1st this year. This day is also used to promote fair-trade coffee. Fair-trade is a form of business which attempts to pay a fair price to the producers of a product, instead of scouting around to pay the lowest possible amount of money to people who belong to vulnerable populations. That’s called “free trade”, and it relies on the “invisible hand” of the market to “trickle down” wealth to all participants through self-regulation. I bet you can’t guess which one I support. But let’s leave the political rants for November. It’s coffee time.

This coffee, unfortunately, wasn’t fair trade. It was pretty darn good though. I must say that this roast, Gavin’s Grogg, is definitely for lovers of dark blends. It’s nutty, it’s rummy, and I was pretty sure I could taste some citrus in there. It is the darkest dark roast that ever darked in the dark. I have no idea who produces it, but I think it might come from a roaster in Lititz. I’ll be letting my fingers do the walking and try to find out online just where this thing came from, because now I want more. My next post will be about a very interesting new cafe that opened up near me. Stay tuned…

Hey all, I realize it’s been a while since I last posted. Summer has been exceedingly busy, especially towards the end. Where I work that’s when busy season starts to kick in as we prepare for all the book orders coming in from everyone starting the academic year. That makes this post a little late. I actually visited The Kind Cafe in Selinsgrove, PA during my family reunion, which happened back on the second week of August.

For those who don’t know, Selinsgrove is actually a college town. When you think of Pennsylvania universities, you typically imagine the small suburbs clustered around Philadelphia, or the mountain enclaves like Lock Haven and Happy Valley. Selinsgrove is neither and both, being on the major artery of 11/15 and only an hour from Harrisburg. It’s actually the college town attached to Susquehanna University. It’s a very good, very expensive university with multiple focuses, including fine arts, and the layout of the town of Selinsgrove immediately reflects the fact that it houses a student population. Little curio shops, boutiques, and yes coffeehouses, all fight for space along the busy main street corridor. Selinsgrove’s artsy charms stand in contrast to the very rural, working class, conservative towns that surround it as one winds up north through the Appalachians.

The Kind Cafe was not only my refuge from the family reunion chaos. It was a place I wanted to go just because of the name. Obvious hippies. After visiting, it was also a place that I promised to come back to the next time I made my way up north. The Kind Cafe is a breakfast and brunch restaurant in addition to serving coffee and they really bill themselves as a nexus for student activity, hosting events and festooning their coffee shop with shelf upon shelf of books and community bulletins.

I ordered the freshest medium-dark roast, cut with a third of a cup of decaf (I was already strung out from too much family reunion). The woman at the counter was kind enough (get it) to make some decaf espresso to put in there, even though I had inadvertently shown up about 15 minutes before closing time!  It was really rich and creamy, even a little floral at the end, without the bitterness that sometimes comes with the darker roasts that I favor. All of their coffee seems to come from a local roaster called Freshroastedcoffee LLC. That was definitely a plus in my book, not only because you could genuinely taste the fact that the beans had not been stored for an eternity in the back of a truck, but that it truly showcased the very deep roots that this place has in the community.

So yeah, if you’re in the area, stop by. Definitely stop by if you’re a card-carrying liberal-arts bookworm like me. It is a bastion of proud intellectualism amid a sea of…well, not all that much unless you’re getting ready for hunting season! Oh, and look for my next updates to come along pretty soon as the weather turns colder and the other college towns of PA and Maryland start heating up. Until next time, stay thirsty, folks.

The outside…

Nooks and crannies…

Plenty of reading material…

A few weeks ago I posted a coffeehouse review with the proviso that I’d be back reviewing more coffeeshops within the next few weeks, all hailing from the Harrisburg countryside. Well, I just made good on that promise by visiting a new one from Mount Joy, PA which is right outside the small city of Lancaster. I’ve been wanting to visit Higher Grounds for some time, given that it’s a well known local spot.

The thing I immediately noticed when I came in was the color scheme. It was all bright yellow and blue inside, distinguishing it from most cafes which seem to go for a more rustic look. A few may think it garish, but I just thought it was not only unique, but also really cheerful. To me, color is an invitation to art. There were also many little nooks and crannies, twists and turns  in this place. Around every corner was a small alcove that afforded a degree of privacy. You may notice that this positive critique is similar to the last coffee spot I reviewed (Square Bean in Dillsburg). I noticed that too. I like when a shop doesn’t feel like a shop, but rather like a community space.

I got the house blend, prepared for me by Kathy, the owner, who started this business with her daughter Ashley ten years ago. Higher Grounds is its own coffee brand. It’s not roasted on site, but it is roasted especially for this coffeehouse, so you are getting a singular blend. That’s always a positive in my book. The house blend was good and smooth. It was also balanced, but on the light side. Since I was there in the morning, I wonder if they specifically blended it that way as a morning blend. It sure seemed like a good breakfast blend to me if that was intentional. It’s clear that there was a wide variety of roasts to choose from, and I regret not trying to mix some of them together. Oh well, there’s always next time!

The only true criticism I have to give Higher Grounds is the same that I had for a few others: what a shame there are no regular community events! I’d love to see a place so obviously crafted by people who care about both coffee and the creative impulse to invite a poetry reading, music night, or something similar. The space is just so darn visual that I could easily, as an artist, avail myself of the space for the purpose of inspiration alone. I highly recommend it for that reason, but be sure to come during the late morning if you want privacy; this coffee house does a brisk breakfast business! I’m happy for that. It means it won’t be leaving Mount Joy anytime soon.

The outside…

closer…

the selection…

Here we are, at the top of the year. Been a while since I posted last; I’ve kept very busy with all the great music and art festivals happening in Harrisburg where I make my home. I finally got a three-day weekend with no jazz, blues, or wine festivals on the horizon, so I thought I would avail myself of the opportunity to search some places off the beaten path for some potential new coffee spots. I found several good new places and in the next few weeks will be rushing out to review them all and report back on what I’ve discovered.

It’s odd, once you get outside of the city it becomes progressively more difficult to find an independent coffee house. My personal theory is that the coffeehouse is a uniquely civic phenomenon. That is, it’s a part of urban culture. It doesn’t matter the size of the town, rather it’s the cosmopolitan, open sophistication of it that gives birth to the intellectual soul of the cafe. That spirit can exist in the smallest community; a spirit that wages insurgency against the dragging anchor of provincial mindsets. That spirit is found in some of the tiniest towns. Montpelier, Vermont is one. I think Dillsburg PA is another.

The coffee shop is called Square Bean Roasters, located right on the main drag (Baltimore Street) in Dillsburg. It’s a pretty unassuming place, tucked back in its block away from the traffic. Inside, Square Bean presented a different side. The moment I got inside, the space seemed small, not much more than a counter and a few chairs and tables; however that’s when I started to explore a bit further. Walking around a wall full of books and navigating a few tables, one rounds a corner to a larger, more spacious area full of even more tables situated beside some small windows. Pretty cozy. A long hallway with an alcove full of town bulletins rounds out the nooks and crannies that populate this oddly shaped, yet strangely comfy space.

The coffee is their own brand. That impressed me right away. They were serious about the name “roaster”, and although, unlike at St. Thomas roasters, I never caught sight of the actual machine, you could tell that they had a full-scale operation underway. The woman at the counter informed me that there were no less than seven varieties to choose from that day in response to my perennial question: “So, what’s the house blend?”. The one I chose was called Midnight Silk. Come on, with a name like that you pretty much have to choose it over “Rainforest Crunch” however much one loves the rainforest. I was genuinely impressed by the subtle craftsmanship that particular coffee showed. It was a particularly dark blend, nice and rich, the way I usually like my coffee to be. It wasn’t quite dark enough to get rid of the body of the drink; a good thing in my estimation. Unpleasant levels of acidity tend to be leveled out by a good dark roast, and this was a good one because it was nice and creamy (after one adds cream of course, but you know of what I speak). I could swear I got some blueberry hints, but it could have been my imagination. Complex is what I’d call this coffee. Actually that fact reminded me of the coffees made by Ambreen Esmail of Cafe di Luna, a former gem of my hometown.

I asked the woman in charge if there were any events that happen in the coffeehouse like poetry, music, and the like. Sadly, she said there weren’t any in the foreseeable future. The only sorrow I left with, therefore, was the knowledge that more people don’t know about this pretty little spot. Perhaps it will ultimately be for the best. I can only imaging the amount of pondering and prose that has taken place at those quiet little tables within all those nooks and crannies. Keep watching the blog for more entries in the coming weeks as I take readers to Scranton, Ephrata, and all those little towns along Jonestown road that never seem to get any attention. They’re about to. Until then, drink up!

The entrance…

The setup…

The nooks and crannies…

The cold is finally ending, and the snow has finally melted. We hope this is the beginning of Spring, but we’ve been fooled before. To be honest, the cold has kept me inside for most of the winter and I haven’t really had the wherewithal to go coffee-house hunting. I’m sure many of you have felt the same. A few weeks ago I did finally emerge from hibernation, and was surprised to find that just last December, before the Siberian Express even began, a brand new coffee shop opened up right in my proverbial backyard.

That coffeehouse would be Note. Yes, that’s also the name of a wine bar in Midtown, but this place proffers uppers instead of downers. It’s located in a plaza near a Bass Pro; not the kind of place that makes me think of a nice, quiet cafe. I learned long ago to keep my mind open during this journey, and understand that the best coffeehouses can be found in the most unassuming places.

Note is memorable for two reasons. First of these is Linda, the owner of the shop. It took a brief conversation with her to see that she really knew her coffee. She was able to rattle off the three single-origin beans from South America and Africa that constituted the house blend with ease. Her stock of beans is visible on a counter in the back of the store and makes for some lovely viewing if, like me, you geek out over that kind of thing. Secondly, attached to Note is East Coast Vapor, a fairly lavish vaping store. Linda seems to feel that vaping culture and coffee culture mesh well. I actually agree with this. Same artsy people. I get it.

And how was the house blend itself? Really good actually. It was rather mild compared to some other house blends I’ve had recently, but it was very well-balanced. I typically go for a more robust flavor, but this was a subtly crafted coffee, consistent with what you’d expect from someone who obviously considers it her art. The three bean combination melded together well, the citrus nature of the African coffees nicely subsumed by the earthiness of the South American.

All in all, it’s a nice little place they got here. It’s tough to get to it from the main entrance; a huge amount of traffic volume and a labyrinthine plaza aren’t a good combination sometimes. It’s worth it to come though. There are apparently art events here too some nights; just informal creative jaunts. I like the sound of that, and I will definitely be making a return trip as soon as I’m convinced that no more vortexes of a polar nature will interfere with my adventures.

Outside…

Spacious interior…

Not bad for a plaza…

Coffee supply…

The side shop…

Hello readers! You’re probably wondering what happened to the blog posts these past few months. Being frozen out is what happened. If you don’t live on the East Coast, you weren’t around for the massive polar vortexes (vortices?) which engulfed the area for the past two months. February was especially bad for us, and I had to cancel a major road-trip to Baltimore that I was planning simply because the cold made travel dangerous. That weekend I woke up to single digits and a forecast of snow for the next day, so I decided that discretion would be the better part of valor this time. At least it saved me money.

Anyhow, that’s why the posts on coffeehouses have been few and far between. Between the winter blues and the fact that frigid weather warnings existed for what seemed like most mornings this month, I made most of my coffee from bags and beans that I purchased. That brings me to this special end-of-winter post. Between Christmas gifts and runs to Wegmans, I actually managed to amass quite an impressive amount of coffee. This was a good time to try some really diverse, niche flavors and see what I could brew up. Here’s a few of the coffees I sampled during these cold months. Drink up.

This is a really good Hazelnut from Wegmans. Very nice, smooth, rich coffee. I don’t know if I agree with them calling this a “light roast” since it doesn’t have the airy, breakfast-coffee feel of most archetypal lights. It’s very flavorful; don’t be afraid to slurp it with some air (like sommeliers do with wine) to make the flavor pop on your taste buds!

Now this one, the Kona, makes a pretty decent go-to coffee, but I wasn’t hugely impressed versus my usual fare. Maybe because I was expecting it to be very flavor-forward and it didn’t seem like that to me. Still, a good bread-and-butter choice. It was a little too powerful for my stomach, so I’d recommend cold-brewing it. In fact, that sounds like a good idea. I should try that…

Now this Columbian coffee I hand picked. It had to be ground from the beans right there in the store; a process I like because I think that really lets it be as fresh as possible when you drink it. No vacuum-packing is perfect, and old grounds are old grounds indeed. This is an even better go-to I think. Truly smooth and flavorful.

This was a present from my Mom. The Archer Farms Christmas blend was really good. Pretty standard medium roast, and one that made a very tasty mug on those frigid mornings. And no, it doesn’t have any special “Christmas-themed” flavors in it like nutmeg or cinnamon. My Mom knows me better than that.

My first coffeehouse visit in a long time, that’s what this is. Needless to say, the holidays are a busy time, and between Thanksgiving and Christmas, these past two months have been downright harrowing. I was lucky enough to get a whole week off of work this past week for Christmas, and so I decided to go on a few adventures of my own, in between visiting relatives and all that. I was on the trail of a new investment opportunity in Lancaster, so on the way I decided to see if there were any new cafes in the area that I hadn’t been to yet. I found this one in Elizabethtown.

Now, one must understand Elizabethtown first. This is one of the many small towns in Central PA which managed to ride out the recession with aplomb and join in the new “urban renaissance” taking place in a lot of large towns and small cities in the area. Communities are investing more and more in the arts and the local environment where possible, and Elizabethtown seems to be one of these. Just to show you how well-run the place is, it only costs 10 cents for two whole hours of parking. Contrast this to Harrisburg where it costs 75 cents for 15 minutes. Yeah, I bet they’re not half a billion dollars in debt either. I could rant on, but I’ll save that for a possible future political blog.

Anyhow, I found this place called Folklore Coffee. Cute name, and one that made me immediately think of literature, storytelling, and the arts in general…which is exactly what this place seems to welcome! Like a lot of local cafes, they have events sometimes on the weekends, which includes the music of local musicians. The artwork on the walls is local too. In fact, the interior is a really gorgeous space, with more than enough room for a band to play, and plenty of little nooks and crannies to secret yourself away into while you read. It seems they agree with my opinion that an effective coffeehouse pretty much has to have these sorts of things; there must be more to a coffeehouse than coffee. Coffee is just the fuel for the art. But again I digress.

I asked for their house blend. They told me that it’s usually a mix of Ethiopian, Brazilian, and New Guinea coffees, but that they were all out for now. I chose the Mexican instead. A really nice, smooth, slightly bitter-in-a-good-way coffee. It felt like a medium roast; a nice thing for a morning after breakfast. The only snafu to the experience was my soymilk which granulated when it hit the coffee. Fun fact: that happens when either the coffee is more acidic than average, or the coffee is very hot compared to the soy. Well, the girl at the counter was very nice about getting me a new coffee free of charge (to which I added normal milk and had no problem).  It more than sustained me for the morning trip down to Lancaster.

All in all, this is another wonderful place that doesn’t get enough publicity. Well, here’s some for free. You never hear about the Elizabethtown art scene, but I really think that it bears looking into further. This is a place with a lot of potential, and could clearly become a local artistic hub. Visit it.

The exterior.

The interior.

A bar in a coffeehouse? Wha?

Nice pottery.

Books.

Hi everybody! I haven’t been on in forever I know. That’s been a combination of the winter blues, a bad flu, and trying to work hard for Christmas money. Well, that’s all starting to clear up now, but it will be a week or two before I get to take my next coffee-related trip down to Columbia, PA, so here are a few things to tide you over. These are some brand new coffees that I’ve been trying out at home; I’ll just give a photo and a quick description of the brewed coffee itself below the picture. I got these coffees from just about everywhere; from Wegmans to Giant, to any little stop along the way that looked like it would be a good roast. If anyone has any good suggestions, just leave them in the comments section.

Brazil Bahia. A very good breakfast coffee as I found out. It is definitely a light roast (a little too light for my taste normally) but the nutty flavor it had made up for it. It wasn’t overbearingly nutty, which is something I like. Always good to have balance, especially with a breakfast blend, which is supposed to be fun and soothing.

Creme de Noisette Hazelnut. This one I had to grind from the beans themselves because it’s not sold in processed form apparently. Now this one is not a breakfast blend. It’s a rich, deep Hazelnut that has a very creamy, silky feel to it, especially if you add real milk to it. Beware though, the Hazelnut is very pronounced, so if you don’t like that flavor, you’ll get overloaded with it here. If you do like that flavor though, this is the best I’ve had yet.

Peet’s Coffee. The Major Dickason’s Blend is my standby. They mean what they say when they say it’s rich and complex. Not as creamy as the Hazelnut, this one is good for morning and afternoon I think. It’s very much the “jeep” of coffees. Nothing too fancy, but able to handle pretty much any situation. Still tastes good after a few hours in a metal Thermos bottle!

Ah, Green Mountain. I’ve always loved Vermont on principle, but they also make great coffee up there. This is another standby for me, though I rarely drink it in the morning because, although it’s light, it’s also a bit strong I think. I like strong coffee in general, and this is a nice, well-rounded one.

Well, that’s all for this time folks. Be on the lookout for my new coffeehouse reviews coming soon, now that I finally have the money and the means to travel around a bit. Interesting things happening in my world. Stay tuned.