A few years ago, I discovered this Hoops & YoYo ecard that describes my love / need for coffee. Haha! Makes me laugh every time I watch it.
Here are a dozen places that I've found to be memorable coffee joints during my travels in no particular order. Yes, that includes chains, because they fulfill an important need - availability of coffee.
Honolulu Coffee Company - Hawaii
Stayed at the Ala Moana Surfrider in Waikiki - a beautiful historic hotel. And while I waited for the lovely valet folks to bring out my car, I'd get a Kona coffee - iced or hot, every morning. Great way to start the day. I know it's a chain, but at least it ranks in top 5 in HI.
Butler's Chocolate Coffee - Everywhere in Ireland
When you get a latte here, you get a piece of chocolate! Your choice - yum! I went to Butler's Chocolate Cafe every day in Ireland, and was thrilled to find a Bailey's coffee in New Jersey of all places - Garden State Plaza mall. I wonder if it's still there... I hope so!
Juan Pelota Cafe - Austin, TX
My memory of Austin Texas is 105 degree weather and drinking iced coffee 4x a day because I was working on a crazy event / project and did not sleep much. Thankfully, we discovered this coffee shop that is owned by Lance Armstrong - it's connected to a bike shop. Not the friendliest staff, to be honest, but great coffee. They have a coffee truck that they take to bike races! Since I don't race / bike, I've never seen it, but have you?
Monmouth Coffee - London, UK
I went alone to this awesome coffee shop on a street corner in Borough Market during a business trip to London. Instead of sleeping on a Sunday afternoon after my redeye, I went for the next best thing - caffeine. The latte and scone with clotted cream that I had was divine. Loved the atmosphere. It was May, so the weather was perfect.
Costa - Across Europe (and Shanghai but not the US?)
My sister introduced me to this chain, which I see all over London and across Europe. For Americans who like cold milk in their coffee, she recommends I order an Iced Americano with cold milk (otherwise they give you a puzzled look and try to give you frothed warm milk to add to your Iced Coffee). Good basic coffee. Better than other chains, I'd say. But maybe I like Costa because of my memories of traveling with the sis. So when we went to Shanghai, we just had to get Iced Americanos at Costa when we saw one across the street from our hotel.
Coffee Bangahtkan - Seoul, Korea
I had to post a cafe from Seoul, Korea, where coffee is more expensive than your meal, often. Seoul not only has chain coffee shops on every street corner, they have the best decorated independently-run cafes serving top-notch coffee and desserts. Their baristas also take their coffee super seriously. This particular cafe is in Samcheongdong and is difficult to find, but they serve hand-dripped coffee and have hand-drawn pictures all over the place. I couldn't find an official website, so here is a like-minded person's video of the place.
Stumptown Coffee - Portland, OR & now New York, NY
In Portland, you have to get Stumptown Coffee. I remember a coworker and I walked around Portland even through parts that you are not supposed to walk around, just to get coffee. You can also get Stumptown at the ACE hotel in NYC, though I find their service to be super slow.
Cafe Grumpy - New York, NY
Because it has the best name. This is where you go to actually have a conversation or read because they don't let you pull out a computer. (Also a great spot to overhear pre-date conversations when a guy or gal has asked someone out for a cup of coffee.) Great variety from different parts of the world, especially iced. And they offer dripping classes or something like that. I'll take one of those classes one day when I start making my own coffee instead of buying.
Four Barrel Coffee - San Francisco, CA
Great atmosphere at Four Barrel Coffee in the Mission. It's also a BIG coffee shop, great decor. Great coffee. They also have an area outdoors if you want to sip your coffee and soak in sun (in non-summer) months in SF. Totally my kind of place! And also this SF blogger's. But I'd fit in more if I'd ridden a bike there and was wearing skinny black jeans, a loose shirt and looked totally awesome.
Blue Bottle - San Francisco, CA (and now Brooklyn, NY)
I'm not a fan of the New Orleans Style Ice Coffee, but they have a delicious latte or hand drip. My favorite location is in the Ferry Building on Saturday mornings - grab a coffee and then walk the market. When I was in San Francisco for a week, I thought Blue Bottle was the best. I was addicted! One of my awesome coworkers would get up early in the morning and get me coffee from the Mint Plaza location... since I'm not an early riser. (Thank you P!) But then, I went back home to....
9th Street Espresso - New York, NY
You don't have many choices at 9th Street Espresso. You just get their straight up latte, or coffee, or americano. And even after drinking Blue Bottle for an entire week, I had 9th Street and was convinced again that 9th Street is the best. It really is.
Starbucks - Everywhere
I live on top of a Starbucks, so that's my go-to. I'm a gold card member and I get a postcard rewarding me a free drink every 2 weeks or so. I give that postcard to my mom or my dad, since I never seem to remember to take that darn postcard downstairs with me in the morning. Although Starbucks may not seem novel to anyone, there are a lot of times as a traveler that I am SO glad that they are everywhere. It is much nicer to find a Starbucks in an airport as an alternate to deli drip awful coffee, or in cities where nothing is familiar and you just want a strong cup of coffee (+ free wifi). So Starbucks, thank you.
I'm writing this post over a lovely latte that I paired with a maple bacon doughnut that is reminiscent of the Voodoo Donut that I had in Portland (w J!). I limited myself to 12, so I wouldn't feel pressure to make this post comprehensive (and thus, never ever post it). I'm sure I missed a lot of places in 30 minutes of digging through my brain, but I plan on visiting many coffee shops during my travels. Would love recommendations!!
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