Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The Most Important Drink of Your Day

excerpt from Oliver Strand's top ten espresso places
published by GQ.





You like coffee. It makes you feel happy in the morning; it isn't illegal. And your relationship with it has evolved since the days when burnt library drip got you through finals. You're a macchiato man now. A devotee of the 4 p.m. barista-made espresso. You're practically Italian in your coffee-drinking habits. So why, every morning, do you pay $4.79 for a watery latte that was lovelessly made on a push-button machine that could be safely operated by a 4-year-old? One probably brewed with beans that were put through a grinder weeks ago? In case you haven't heard, we're living in a Golden Age of Coffee. (Note: Please don't actually go around calling it that.) Thanks to a new generation of purveyors bent on returning craft and artistry to the beverage—like Ninth Street Espresso in New York (the espresso comes only in triple-shot form) and Stumptown in Portland, Oregon (thirty-five different brews; ProuvĂ© chairs in which to enjoy it)—there's now a wealth of coffee in America so rich and flavorful it'll remind you why you originally fell in love with the stuff. Here are the ten best places to get your daily fix.

Oliver Strand explores his choice of the ten best places for espresso in this great article originally published by GQ on October 19, 2009. Citizen Bean subscribers will recognize most of these great roasters.

For the entire article on GQ we encourage you to visit http://tinyurl.com/yaanwcs