Bakers and Baristas

Strong flavorful coffee and delightful but small assortment of croissants and pastries and a few gourmet breakfast sandwiches on the corner of 7th and E in downtown Washington DC.

I broke my vegan diet for this place. It’s across from a Starbucks and yet very busy. The service is sweet and kind and the croissant is delicious.

“Proudly Independent and locally owned” printed on the window reflects the sentiment inside. I’m enjoying the view of the dc anthill marching along outside. City life I have not been immersed in for some time. I miss it. It’s an oasis.

I’m in heaven right here.

A Little Bit of London in Ramona

English Tea fans rejoice! I was privileged to be the first customer at a new bakery in Old Town Ramona.

The London Bakery  632 Main Street, Ramona CA.

I stopped in this morning for one of the best scones I’ve ever eaten…or savored really. Out of the large selection, I chose blueberry. It was light and fresh with the perfect amount of real blueberries. Not overpowering like some, and not dry like most scones in America. Everything is made from scratch by an authentic English baker – and it shows. I’m looking forward to trying more. The tea was Ty Phoo and delicious. It took a hint of milk and sugar perfectly. I’m not sure if it was the tea or the British maker but I will be searching out this one for home use. Love, love, love this place.

The London Bakery

The London Bakery

All our coffees are back in stock!

Back in stock! We now have Stacy’s Coffee available again. New, this time, Brando Commando available in both whole bean and pre ground. Sometime you’re just not awake enough to use a grinder so we’ve done it for you. Brando is our best morning blend. Wake you up and kick your butt. Click Here to Buy Stacy’s Coffee

In search of the best coffee ever.

When was the last time you had a truly good cup of coffee? Not one that is laden with syrups and chemicals to fool your brain into thinking it’s good. I’m talking about a fill your mouth, smooth, acidic balanced by slightly sweet and nutty, satisfying cup of joe. They are so hard to find. I’ve had many cups on the run and those last minute keurig pods to get my caffeine fix but it’s been a while since I just had a really yummy hot cup of coffee so good I could drink it black. I encourage you to embark on a journey. Find that special cup of heaven that when you sip you feel at peace, like the world is a wonderful place. Let me know what you discover. What kind of coffee, grind, process and location. Include the #stacyscoffeeandtea or comment on this post and I’ll show them here on my blog and website and enter you into a drawing. On February 29thm one lucky winner will be chosen to receive a free mug from our stash. Happy sipping!

A Flagstaff Institution…Macy’s European Coffee House

  Well, I can cross one more off the “need to go to in my lifetime.” There it was, Macy’s in flagstaff. It is exactly what you expect. This place puts the hip in hippie. The iconic long haired barista, on-site roasted beans and fresh tea blends lined up in a row of jars makes it warm and friendly.

   

  

 The amazing super large photographs on the walls make it cool and eclectic. That’s hard to pull off both. A flagstaff institution since 1980, they have fresh baked everything from bagels to sandwiches to pizza. My cappuccino was the perfect blend of not too bitter espresso exquisitely blended with frothy milk to almost overflowing. Perfectly balanced, but they make it look easy. My companion’s hot chocolate was lovely. Smooth and sweet. They have everything you want in a place like this and maintain the authentic vibe. They have clearly been doing this a long time but still love what they do. Time to just sit and enjoy. Free wifi too. 

Stacy’s Coffee and Tea is here!

It’s official! We are now accepting order and shipments begin on Monday.

Yummy tea. Assam is better than Darjeeling.

Source: Yummy tea. Assam is better than Darjeeling.

Yummy tea. Assam is better than Darjeeling.

Our newest addition to the tea line is from Two Leaves and a Bud. Fair trade, organic, kosher, gluten free and wonderful. Assam, like Darjeeling, is named for the region in India where it is grown. As a tea, it has some wonderful qualities. It has a darker, richer flavor with a hint of malty goodness. It produces a medium caffeine and you need to steep this one a bit longer. The box recommended 4 minutes and they are right. It’s a beautiful color orange/copper with an earthy but not acidic flavor. It could stand alone or stand up to a bit of cream and sugar. Either way, it’s good.

This could replace a morning cup of coffee for the flavor and richness, but I need a bit more jolt to get going. I like this version because it’s the whole tea leaf in a sachet bag so you get the benefit of whole leaf tea with the convenience of a bag. I’ll be “testing” this one often.

The chilled one – Cold brewed coffee

Fear not, coffee lover! If you have never tried the cold brew method, you are missing out on great coffee flavor.

Boxer Brew Coffee co

“Cold coffee?”, I hear you say.  “That is just not right!”, you say.  Well, you are probably robbing yourself from a great coffee experience and a simple brewing method.  Let me take you on a magic carpet ride…

So what is it?  I can tell you first what it is not; it is not hot coffee gone stale and cold when you got busy at work.  It is not the method of pouring warm, strong coffee over ice, though that is a recognised coffee preparation method.  Instead cold brew is a method whereby you use cold or room temperature water to do your brew.  It creates a non acidic, coffee concentrate that some describe as syrupy.  It is high in cafein and full of flavour!

There is a large and expensive list of equipment you can use for your cold brewed coffee, but you can get awesome results with run…

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Inventor of K-Cups feels bad about their use, doesn’t use ’em

envirobs

There’s little happiness in the story, really. John Sylvan invented those little individual-serving coffee cups one places into the machines that seem to pop out of the woodwork almost everywhere, like mushrooms from the forest floor. (The irony of his name immediately strikes me–sylvan means “in or of the woods or forest”; one could take it more generally as “green”.) Yeah, the K-cup was his idea.

Some years back, Sylvan came up with the idea of small disposable containers of coffee, pre-blended, packed and sealed, that could be popped into a machine, a button pushed, with the result being a decent cuppa joe with almost no effort.

But there is the waste. Last year, nearly 10 billion of those little cups were sold. It might be important to stipulate that some are “recyclable”. But Sylvan himself maintains it is not: “No matter what they say about recycling, those…

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