Since I travel a lot, I have to be proactive about maintaining my rhythms while on the road. One of my essential considerations is starting the day with good coffee.
You can call it an addiction. I call it staying alive longer than you.
The problem is generally that modifier: good. It’s why I rarely drink hotel coffee; I might as well be drinking Folgers. Nor will I accept Dunkin as good. This is my quandary whenever I’m traveling in New England as Dunkin is as plentiful as air. At least I know someplace up there where I can find a good cup . . .
And don’t get me started on Starbucks as good. It’s chaotic evil.
While this leads me to search out smaller coffee shops, I’m sometimes disappointed. I’ve discovered a fair share of places that are posing. They claim to be superior to fast-food java but they’re truly no better.
I don’t mean to insult these businesses: at the end of the day, if they can turn a profit, more power to them. But as for me, if I’m going to spend to pay a premium for artisanal coffee, it must be good.
On the road, my quest for a morning coffee place starts the night before. I search Google maps for options then apply a process of elimination. I’ve told it to so many people, I finally decided to write it out.
Three warning signs in the search for good coffee:
1. The coffee shop doesn’t disclose the beans they brew
Good coffee starts with good roasted beans. If an establishment won’t disclose this up front, I’m wondering if they’re hiding something.
2. The coffee shop offers flavors
Whenever I see various pumps of flavor infusion, I’m even more leery. You brew good coffee. Flavor pumps just mask over deficiencies; you might as well leave some Hershey’s syrup out on the counter.
3. The coffee shop doesn’t serve a cortado
My friend Chris, who also travels extensively and is an even greater coffee snob than I, used this as his good coffee barometer. I’ve adopted his measurement. While the cortado is a relative new comer to the American coffee scene, it’s popularity is now significant enough that any respectable coffee establishment will serve one.
To be fair, just because a coffee shop violates one of the three standards, it doesn’t mean they can’t serve good coffee. Sometimes I’m in a remote area where I have to pull the trigger on a 1/3 establishment. The odds here run about about 50%.
If I’m forced to try a 2/3 place, I’m already resigned to disappointment. Here, it’s only a 10% chance that I’m drinking good coffee that day.
If it’s a 3/3 I’m not even trying. I’ll swallow my pride and resign myself to drinking a flat white from Starbucks.
A man got to have a code.